Powerful photos show how a breast-cancer survivor turned her scars into art with free tattoos

Jacqueline Van Schaik, a breast-cancer survivor based in Amersfoort, Netherlands, told Insider she was first diagnosed with cancer in her breasts and in the lymph nodes of her armpits in 2020.

She said she received chemotherapy but had a "terrible experience" with it. Although it shrunk the tumor in her breasts, it didn't help as much as they had hoped, Van Schaik said, so she ended up scheduling a double mastectomy, an operation to remove both breasts, in 2021.

"It was a hell of a journey, I can say that… Your world is falling apart," she said.

"I have a son, he's 17 now. I got diagnosed in 2020, and his world fell apart as well. He thought he was going to lose me, that I was going to die. As a matter of fact, I was afraid of dying as well," she added.

"It took away my self-esteem, the way I looked at my body. I wasn't a very handsome woman, but I was alright... That's gone, you know, when you come out the shower and you see the scars in the mirror. I cried a lot," she said.

Van Schaik said she met Myriam Scheffer, a fellow breast-cancer survivor, shortly after her surgery in 2021 as they were both part of a Facebook group for women affected by breast cancer. In the summer of 2022, Scheffer created Tittoo.org, a charity that provides free tattoos for breast-cancer survivors across Europe who have scars from their surgeries. Scheffer asked Van Schaik if she would be the first recipient, and she said yes.

"Now, two years later, for me, it's okay. I look at the tattoo now, and I don't see the scars anymore. And it really works," Van Schaik said.

Speaking to Insider, Scheffer said her role at Tittoo.org involves recruiting tattoo artists across Europe and connecting them with breast-cancer survivors. She said the organization currently has nine artists based in the Netherlands and five artists in Italy, all of whom have pledged to donate one tattoo per year.

Scheffer said she was inspired by her own experience with breast cancer before starting the charity. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2020, and had two separate mastectomy surgeries; her left breast was removed in January 2021, and her right breast was removed in May 2021.

Scheffer said she would eventually like to have a tattoo to cover her own scars, however, she has to wait as her scars are not healing correctly and are still painful.

Van Schaik said she waited around a year after her surgery to get the tattoos on her chest, which took nine hours in total over three sessions in December 2022 and January 2023.

She asked her tattoo artist, Darryl Veer, to design a colorful floral and butterfly tattoo on her chest. And while Van Schaik came up with the concept, she said Veer was instrumental in creating a design and placement which flowed and covered the scars on her body.

Van Schaik said she felt a strong connection with Veer, as he reminded her of her late brother. She said they spent the first session getting to know one another and getting used to the feeling of having the area tattooed, which Van Schaik said was a good experience and didn't feel painful.

Martina Leopizzi, a tattoo artist based in Florence, Italy, who volunteers at Tittoo.org, told Insider there are three major factors that artists must consider before working with clients who have scars.

First, she said the artist must have experience tattooing over scars. Leopizzi said she previously tattooed women who had C-sections, so she was used to working with skin that had been damaged. She also said it's important to consider the condition of the skin.

"Any scar can be different... it can depend on when you got the scar, how old it is. You also have to be sensitive to how the person getting the tattoo is feeling. Because most women, I don't know why, they feel ashamed. They don't want to talk about it, they want to hide it, they don't want to show it," Leopizzi added.

Van Schaik intends to stay involved with Tittoo.org's work, and told Insider she plans to reach out to artists in her local neighborhood as well as attend a tattoo conference in the south of the Netherlands in March.

Scheffer, meanwhile, hopes to expand the organization across more countries in the future. She said that members of the public can donate through a link on the organization's website, which goes towards expenses for travel to tattoo conventions, to scout and meet artists, and to host events for women to get free tattoos.