Pink tattoos tell the stories of breast cancer battles
Everybody affected by cancer has a story, and sometimes they tell that story with a symbol rather than words.
Some in the Las Vegas Valley who have watched loved ones battle cancer sport tattoos to share their families’ tales of triumph and tragedy.
Robert and Carmen Lomeli watched their mother fight breast cancer, one of the most common types of cancers in women. The disease eventually took her life.
But the brother and sister wanted to keep her memory and her spirit alive.
Robert, 35, decided two months ago he would take his sister to get a tattoo memorializing their mother. Her birthday was coming up, and Carmen, 45, said she always had wanted to honor their mom but couldn’t find the time to do it.
But there’s one twist to this story: The appointment with the tattoo artist was a surprise for Carmen.
And that was obvious Monday when the siblings showed up at Blue Buddha Tattoo shop.
The shop had opened the week before on South Fort Apache Drive, and it still bore no signs. But Robert had a reason for picking Blue Buddha: The owner, tattoo artist Valerie Noda, had inked his left arm with a tattered pink ribbon to signify his mother’s struggle while she was still alive.
“I thought he was going to take me shopping at Goodwill or take some dance lessons,” Carmen admitted with a laugh when she looked around the shopping center, which includes a Goodwill of Southern Nevada store and a dance studio.
Carmen, who is named after their mother, wears a pink glass ring that says “love” on her left ring finger. It was one of her mother’s favorite pieces of jewelry, and she passed it on. Carmen rubbed her thumb over the top of the ring as she recalled two other things her mother had loved most: doves and angels.
It was Carmen’s second tattoo — the other is on an ankle — and she took the pain, barely wincing as the handheld tattoo machine buzzed away at her left wrist.
Until the end, that is. When she admitted the stinging was growing stronger, her brother gave her a reassuring grip just below her right elbow.
After a 20-minute session, the tattoo was finished. Carmen looked down at her wrist, her eyes welling with tears and a hand raised to her mouth.
“Val, it’s beautiful,” she gasped.
Along with her mother’s ring and her name, Carmen’s memorial was complete with angel wings attached to a pink cancer ribbon on the inside of her left wrist.
“It’s a way to honor her more,” she said about her mom, who died two years ago.
A tattoo artist for six years, Noda, 36, said it’s nice to do something so meaningful for someone. It reminds her that a tattoo can be more than just a tattoo.
“This is a personal one; it’s not just for looks,” said Noda, who also has a pink ribbon tattoo on an ankle. Hers, she said, is to honor everyone affected by breast cancer.
Carrie Johnson, 43, also paid homage to the universal cancer patient when she went under the needle with Seth Moore at Diversity Tattoo on North Rancho Drive. She got a butterfly in the shape of a cancer ribbon tattooed on her right arm Oct. 4.
Johnson, a breast care coordinator at the General Surgery Associates in the Medical District, has worked with breast cancer patients for about 17 years.
“Butterflies are a symbol I love. It represents beauty and being free,” Johnson said. “Both the butterflies and ribbon together symbolize how I feel.”
She knew Moore would understand her tribute. The tattoo artist, who has tattooed the pink ribbon on as many as 200 people, takes it to heart each time one is requested.
Moore’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2011 during a routine mammogram screening. Moore said he had a pink ribbon tattooed on his sternum, one of the most painful spots to get a tattoo, about a day after he got the news.
Moore believed that if she could go through all that she did, he could go through some pain as well.
Carol Moore, Seth’s mother, who is now in remission, continued to work through chemotherapy. Her son said he admires her willpower.
She said she’s not actually a fan of tattoos but that her son’s tribute is “real touching.”
Seth, 31, might have inherited some of that willpower.
“My mom always said to me if God wanted me to have tattoos, I would’ve been born with them,” he said. “Well, I believe I was born with an open canvas to tell my story.”
Contact reporter Cassandra Taloma at ctaloma@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @CassandraTaloma.
