Unlikely inked: Breast cancer survivors say matching butterfly tattoos help show support, bring them closer

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Unlikely inked: Breast cancer survivors say matching butterfly tattoos help show support, bring them closer
July 11, 2010
Melissa Burden
mlive.com


t’s a common question for conservative looking Cathy Wenzel, 54, and Sue Vutera, 65, when their blue and green butterfly tattoos inked on their upper right arms are visible.

Wenzel, secretary at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Flint, got the tattoo in summer 2009 to show support for her longtime best friend Vutera, after Vutera was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time.

“I’m the last person in the world that I ever thought would get a tattoo,” Wenzel of Flushing said.

“That’s why I was so touched, because I knew she was way outside her comfort zone,” Vutera of Clayton Township, a retired middle school teacher, added last week during a conversation about breast cancer and friendship over chicken salads at Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar in Flint Township.

And little did they know that the tattoo that features a red cross in the middle, the word journey and bff (for best friends forever) on Wenzel’s arm would have an even deeper meaning just a few months later.

It was meant for one breast cancer journey, not two.

“In a way, the butterfly represents new life,” Vutera said. “After you’ve been through (breast cancer), you’re life is changed no matter what.”

Wenzel had had a breast cancer scare in 2008, but it turned out to be nothing. So when doctors called her in for more tests a year later, she didn’t panic.

But after her biopsy when her doctor called her into the office, she knew the news wasn’t going to be good.

“They always give you the good news over the phone,” Wenzel said.

It was just before Christmas 2009 and Wenzel had breast cancer, too.

More than 261,000 women in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with new case of invasive and noninvasive breast cancer this year and some 39,840 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

And as you get older, your risk of getting breast cancer grows. About two of three women with invasive breast cancer are 55 and up when their cancer is found, according to the American Cancer Society.

Vutera, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, hadn’t planned to get a tattoo, but she and her daughter Amy Campos, 37, of Red Rock, Ariz. ended up getting the matching butterfly tattoos on the spot in October 2008.

Vutera had gone to Custom Ink & Steel in Flint Township with her husband Donald Vutera, 67, when he wanted to get a tattoo of the letters USMC for U.S. Marine Corps.

There, she found the butterfly with the cross in it and the next thing she knew she was hearing the buzz of the tattoo needle.

Vutera, who said her faith helped her get through treatments and recovery, said she’d had many crosses over the years, but the chains had broken or she’d lost them.

“When I saw that one, I said ‘I can’t lose that one,’” she said.

“I had no idea that I was going to get a tattoo that day or ever,” she added. “It just really appealed to me.”

Campos had the word journey added to her tattoo the day she found out her mom had been diagnosed for the second time. That day, Vutera’s other daughter and Campos’ sister Mallorie Myers, 40, of Red Rock, Ariz., got one the same tattoo in Arizona using Campos’ tattoo as a guide.

Campos, who moved back to Michigan for 11 months to help her mom, said the butterfly tattoo signifies being able to come out on the other side as a survivor.

“The word journey to me in a lot of ways is a lot more significant than the butterfly,” Campos said. “It means to me that I was part of her journey and I was an important part of her recovery.”

Wenzel, Campos and Myers have one of the letters in the word journey in their tattoo colored red — the letter Vutera gave them. Wenzel has the letter e, Amy has the letter o and Mallorie has the letter r.

“It’s a very difficult journey,” Vutera said, adding her husband also has given her great support. “You learn the meaning of the word despair, but when you get past that, you learn the word hope, too.”

Wenzel and Vutera are among about 2 1/2 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S. Wenzel recently finished her treatments after having two lumpectomies, a hysterectomy and going through radiation treatments. Vutera had a mastectomy and has completed chemotherapy and radiation, though admits she’s worried the cancer will come back.

“We’ve been through a lot together. We didn’t have to be this close,” Wenzel joked.

Wenzel and Vutera say the tattoos — and what they signify — have brought them all closer and the friendships have helped them to get through the challenging and tough part in their lives.

“We’re there for Cathy,” Campos said, adding that she has run errands for Wenzel when she was going through treatments.

“They were my support system,” Wenzel said.