No, A Mastectomy Is Not Like Getting a Tattoo

Debunking the Trans "Tattoo" Argument

In 2017 when I was 20 years old, I made 2 bodily choices.

1. Getting a Tattoo
2. Having a Radical Double Mastectomy

I wanted to get a tattoo on my left forearm because I needed to cover up some self harm cutting scars there. Having a dark sense of humor, I thought it would be funny to get an image of Jerry Seinfeld over the cuts. I’m a huge comedy fan and at the time, Jerry Seinfeld seemed like a humorous choice to cover up self-harm scars. I went to a tattoo and piercing shop, consulted with a tattoo artist, and got the Jerry tattoo done for $300 in black and white, and my mission to hide the scars was successful.

I wanted to remove my breasts because I was trans-identified and experiencing intense gender dysphoria. I had been struggling with gender issues since I was 17, and problems around being gender conforming since early childhood. I believed the treatment for gender dysphoria was to transition medically, so at 19 I began taking testosterone, and at 20 pursued a double mastectomy. I consulted with a surgeon, and he agreed that under the WPATH guidance, I needed to have my breast removed.

During both of these bodily decisions, the tattoo, and the mastectomy, I was exercising my adult right to bodily freedom and autonomy. During both of these bodily decisions, I was suicidal, suffering from undiagnosed and untreated complex ptsd, an endocrine disorder called PCOS, substance abuse, attachment wounds from parental abuse, toxic romantic relationships, and developmental delays from being on the autism spectrum. When I made both bodily decisions, I was naive, immature, traumatized, foolish, and developmentally regressed. Both body modifications were easy to receive, and for a short period of time, felt happy about both results.

As the years went on, I grew up, matured, got diagnosed with CPTSD, and eventually realized why I made bad decisions and got very hurt when I was young. Trans activists will try to use getting a tattoo as a comparison for “gender-affirming” double mastectomy. As someone who received both at the same time, they are nothing alike.

I regret my tattoo of Jerry Seinfeld on my arm. It was funny for a while, but now as an adult I see it as cringe and silly, an eyesore. It wasn’t a good long-term decision. I also regret my double mastectomy. My body isn’t whole, and functioning organs are missing. I have deep incision scars across my chest, and nipple grafts that don’t look like normal male or female nipples. My tattoo is a casual talking point that people ask me about sometimes. I laugh and cringe thinking about it, but otherwise ignore it 99% of the time. My chest is a source of deep pain, that I have to disclose shamefully to potential partners or those close in my life. It is a reminder of my trauma and abuse, something I feel grief over every time I look at myself.

The tattoo and “top surgery” bodily autonomy comparison is a manipulation.
Getting a bad tattoo that you regret is part of the naivety of growing up. Hating your body to the point where you seek medical treatment, where doctors say that you need body parts amputated, and cut off your organs so that you permanently look like a Frankenstein experiment, with no nerve sensation, is barbaric and cruel.

For a tattoo, as an adult, I could walk into any tattoo shop in the country and consent to having ink in my skin for $300, even if I was suicidal and immature. For a double mastectomy, I required multiple medical professionals’ approval that I was mentally stable to consent to an invasive surgery to treat being suicidal. I couldn’t have done it alone.

Multiple doctors lied to me that I had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria that required medical mutilation of my healthy body parts. This was propagated by gender ideology which claims that these surgeries are a normative part of health care for gender and bodily discomfort. My surgery was partially covered under health insurance and billed as “medically-necessary.”

I regret my tattoo. I think about removing it or covering it up with something else.

I will never have a normal female body. I will never be able to breast feed or have sensation or pleasure in my torso.

Body modifications are not flat equivalents that every adult should be given with no questions asked so that the practitioner can make a buck.

A suicidal under 21 patient should be given mental health care as a compassionate safeguard. Breasts cannot be put back on. The scars can’t be erased.