Tattoo Artist Helps Cancer Survivors And Amputees By Giving Them Free Hyper-Realistic Tattoos

Jan 30, 2019 by apost team

We often judge people based on their outward appearance. In other words, we often judge books by their covers.

Whether we consider ourselves biased towards certain characteristics of others or not, we almost certainly are, in fact, biased towards some and against others.

When most people look at Eric Catalano, a middle-aged, muscular, Hispanic male who has multiple tattoos on his face, two full-fledged tattoo sleeves, and the majority of his skin tattooed, they jump to conclusions about his character.

You definitely shouldn't judge the book of Eric by its cover, that's for sure.

Eric Catalano has been a tattoo artist for over a decade. He's spent the majority of his career at Hecker, Illinois' Eternal Ink Studio.

After his grandma Mary emerged victorious in a long-running battle against breast cancer, he felt a calling to provide people with free breast cancer tattoos.

Shortly after word spread of Eric's wide-open offer, women who had undergone single or double mastectomies requested realistic, lifelike tattoos of nipples to adorn their once-perfect breasts.

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Although some of those breast cancer survivors' nipples were still present, the women still wanted to have them touched up so they looked normal. Catalano happily obliged to tattoo such areas for free, knowing that he could potentially impact their lives by improving their body image and self-confidence.

From 2010, when Eric began giving out free tattoos of breast cancer awareness symbols, to 2015, he donated his time, effort, equipment, and skills to more than 1,500 people!

He's also given out more than 100 breast and chest tattoos to female survivors of breast cancer over the years. Eric has acknowledged that the field of reconstructive breast surgery, specifically related to procedures formed on female survivors of breast cancer, is lacking.

A man who had a third of his index and middle fingers amputated approached Catalano this month and asked if Eric would tattoo fingernails on the two stubbed fingers. Eric happily obliged, sharing a picture of some amazing reconstructive cosmetic tattoo work on his social media pages.

Because he is constantly asked for help by people in need of his free services, Eric has sought pay from kind-hearted people through GoFundMe. Eric continues to offer his services to this day.

Are you close with anybody who has undergone a mastectomy or other type of reconstructive surgery following cancer? Would they like to get a tattoo by Eric Catalano? Let us know - and feel free to pass this along to your friends and family!