Empowered Ink | Shots | NPR

When Nicole O’Hara was diagnosed with breast cancer at 29, she had a double mastectomy. The surgery, reconstruction and chemo that followed left her with inflamed scarring across her chest.

"To be reminded of those [scars] every time you look in the mirror can be hard," she says. "You're trying to move past that point in your life.”

So she decided to change the meaning behind her scars with something more symbolic — a tattoo with special meaning.

• Read or listen to"VIDEOWhere Mastectomy Scars Raged, A Tattoo Garden Blooms" at

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