Photo of a Breast Cancer Survivor's Chest Tattoo Goes Viral After Facebook Tries to Remove It
Facebook photos go viral everyday — but how many of them go viral because of Facebook's efforts to prevent them from being seen?
According to the official Facebook page of Ontario-based ink design collective Custom Tattoo Design, a photo on their feed of a breast cancer survivor with an all-over chest tattoo has been repeatedly removed by Facebook, ostensibly due to a violation of its infamously opaque terms of service concerning nudity.
To protest Facebook's actions, Custom Tattoo Design has been reposting the photo every time it's removed, and says it will continue to do so in honor of the woman's bravery and strength.
To help them in their cause, the company has asked its thousands of followers to like and share the photo " to show your support for this and many other women who have lost so much."
At the time of writing, the post has over 140,000 likes, some 115,000 shares, and around 17,000 comments, most of which express indignation at Facebook's heartless disrespect toward cancer victims.
It seems that the backlash has ultimately persuaded Facebook to let the photo be, as it appears to have been left up unmolested for the past several days.
UPDATE: The photo above is republished with permission from Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo by Margot Mifflin, published by powerHouse Books. Post-mastectomy tattoos by Tina Bafaro.
