A Wokingham tattoo artist has held a charity ‘flash tattoo’ event for the Nipple Innovation Project (NiP) during breast cancer awareness month.
Jonny Ransom, 44, and his apprentice, Mickie McCarthy of Held for Ransom Tattoos in Wokingham, have been offering a range of custom designed “flash” tattoos to customers throughout breast cancer awareness month.
This culminated in a charity flash day on October 27.
Customers paid a discounted rate for the tattoos, and the money raised was donated to NiP.
NiP is a charity, established in 2018, that provides breast cancer survivors who have had nipples removed during mastectomy surgery with free 3D, long-lasting nipple tattoos.
This can be a vital step in helping to rebuild confidence after breast cancer.
Mr. Ransom met Lucy Thompson, the CEO of NiP, at a tattoo convention and thought “.. what she was doing was amazing”.
He was keen to get involved with the charity and so, alongside the charity event, he has undertaken NiP’s training to learn how to do realism nipple tattoos.
He hopes to soon begin to offer this service to breast cancer survivors through the charity.
Mr Ransom said: “Lucy has arranged for affiliate artists with the charity to offer free nipple tattoos to mastectomy survivors which are then invoiced back to the NHS.”
One customer supporting the charity event had a flash tattoo on his upper leg was Chris Strong, 48, a senior compliance manager from Reading who has been a regular customer.
He was keen to be involved when he heard about the cause.
He said: “It’s quite close to my heart because my wife has had breast cancer.
“She had a double mastectomy in 2012 and later she had her nipple removed. I can see the impact first hand.”
Mr. Strong added that he thought “regaining body confidence” was important after a mastectomy and he wanted to fully support the charity event.
Mr. Ransom now intends to offer the flash tattoos on a rolling basis in the coming months, continuing to donate any proceeds to NiP.
More information is available on Held for Ransom’s Instagram page at @heldforransomtattoos
