Goodbye Blue Radiation Tattoo Dots
Survivors already know that breast cancer brings many challenges and the possibility of going through radiation therapy is one of them. If a survivor must go through radiation she/he will be left with permanent tattooed radiation markers/dots, which are either blue or black. They are an important marker for accurate radiation treatments. However, survivors often dislike the lingering tattooed dots because they are a reminder of their cancer. Also, because the radiation dots are often located on the chest, many are bothered by the dots showing when wearing a scoop or v neck shirts. The dots look too bluish or too black to be considered healthy freckles.
The good news is that radiation markers can be removed by several laser treatments or the method I do; tattooing the dots with a neutralizing orange color. This makes the blue dots a brown color, which then appears as a freckle instead of a blue dot.
There is talk about fluorescent tattoo ink only seen with a special light. The question one might ask is why not use a brown color to start with if the fluorescent isn’t available? The difficult part may be identifying the brown marker amongst other freckles that the patient may already have.
Recently, a woman came in to do permanent eyebrows because hers never grew back after breast cancer and chemotherapy. I asked her if she had had radiation, and when she said, “yes,” I let her know that if she wanted me to change the blue color of her radiation dots, I could. She had no idea this could be done and was beyond thrilled to disguise the blue dots.
At the end of the eyebrow and radiation cover-up tattoo, my client, a wonderful strong woman, was loving her new brows! However, she couldn’t stop staring and smiling in the mirror as she tried to locate her new tattooed freckles mixed in with her natural ones.
The bluish black radiation tattoo markers are disguised as a freckle; after one treatment.
If you or someone you know would benefit from this just call us and set up a radiation tattoo cover-up. This is a no charge service available for anyone and we are happy to do it!
Jill Hoyer
Areola Medical Tattoo and Permanent Makeup Artist
Timeless Skin Spa Los Gatos, CA
www.timelessskinspa.com
408.395.7792
*Please check with your oncologist to make sure enough time has passed and the markers are no longer necessary.
