Artists's nipple tattoos for cancer survivors keep getting deleted on Facebook

Artist Terri Benamore runs her own studio, creating reconstructive tattoos for people who’ve had their nipples removed during cancer treatment.

The 32-year-old from Northampton has inked 3D areola tattoos for the last year and a half, helping more than 70 women ‘feel complete again’.

To advertise her business, The Kiri Clinic, she relies on social media, namely Facebook and Instagram.

But detrimentally to her business, the images of the areola tats keep being deleted.

After being banned from the social media platforms for a day, then a week and even a year, Terri has fought with the media giants to recognise areola tats as non-sexual content.

Facebook told Metro.co.uk that they have been looking into the issue on behalf of Terri and are taking additional steps to help her.

Terri said she hopes they follow up but she wants to keep fighting, for women and people affected by these life-changing experiences.

‘I call nipple tats healing tattoos because they do really heal the soul,’ Terri told Metro.co.uk.

‘These people are a shadow of their former selves, having lost complete confidence in their bodies.

‘When people have had a mastectomy there are different types – some people have lumpectomies, some people keep their nipples and some don’t.

‘So I decided to look into it further because I wanted to help these women. Being asked about it all the time, I didn’t want to let them down.’

Images of the 3D areola tattoos that she has created have gone on social media, which is important for the business.

‘It’s really important that I share my work on social media, it gives us 80% of the work I do in normal and nipple tats. So it’s important avenue for me to get my work out there. And people need to see pics of what it looks like, they want to see.

‘Seeing it on social media is vital – to show breast cancer survivors that this is an option for them.’

But what happened every time she tried to post left her frustrated. Each image would get deleted and say ‘your post goes against our policies as it shows images of a sexual nature. Do you think we made a mistake?’

Once Terri clicked ‘yes, please reveal my picture’ it would do so but the process repeated every time she uploaded. She was then banned, for periods ranging 24 hours to a year.

‘You’re guilty till proven innocent,’ added Terri. ‘There is clearly a difference between an areola tattoo and a breast which is shown in a sexual context.

‘Seeing my accounts get deleted was absolutely heartbreaking and detrimental to business.’

Terri had plans to open a clinic that specialised in areola tattoo alongside complementary therapies that patients may want or need.

But after having her blocked and deleted, she couldn’t do it as she was unable to raise awareness.

After over 200 emails and messages, her account was restored.

She is back to using her accounts to help as many breast cancer survivors as she can.

She added: ‘Creating these tattoos is life-changing. It’s very special, I’m honoured to be able to do this with people.’

A Facebook spokesperson told Metro.co.uk a bit more about the issue, saying that images of mastectomy scarring don’t go against their anti-nude rules.

‘Adult nudity isn’t allowed on our platforms, but we do make exceptions for images of post-mastectomy scarring.

‘We use a combination of technology and human review when we make decisions about content. Some of the judgements we make when we apply our policies are nuanced and occasionally we get it wrong.

‘In this instance, we reinstated Terri’s posts and profile as soon as we became aware of our error.’

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