A few weeks ago, the Internet was made aware of breast cancer survivor Inga Duncan Thornell's absolutely beautiful, incredibly inspiring tattoo on her chest. The tattoo -- a gorgeous piece of artwork designed by Inga and tattooist Tina Bafaro -- covered the scars from her mastectomy. It's Inga's creative, thoughtful, and stunning alternative to reconstructive surgery. The tattoo was featured on the Facebook page of Custom Tattoo Design.
But then it wasn't. Because Facebook took it down for violating its no nudity policy.
At the time of writing this, the photo is up. But here's the text that goes along with it:
Hello Everyone, This Tattoo was done for a woman who had breast cancer! Facebook keeps removing the post in 24hour as an offensive photo do to nudity. However we feel this woman is both brave and strong so were going to post it anyways and ask for your awareness and support; Please like and share this photo quickly to show your support for this and many other women who have lost so much. (Kind Comments are welcome) Thanks!
Right now the photo has over 200,000 likes.
According to The Huffington Post, Facebook has since backtracked on their original decision and will allow the photo to stay up, saying: "Mastectomy photos don't violate our content standards and are permitted on the site."
I'm pretty shocked this photo was ever taken down in the first place. This is something beautiful. Something thoughtful. Something that will make you leave the social networking site with a feeling of hope or love or strength, as opposed to leaving it having only viewed photos of people's dinner and having read sanctimonious political rants. This is something good for Facebook.
Thankfully, it sounds like the photo is back up on the site for good -- smart move Facebook. This picture may technically classify as "nudity", but there's nothing about this photo that should be in violation of anything.
What do you think of this photo having been taken down?
Image via Facebook
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Comments 52
No matter how hard I stare at this I don't see nudity - I see what at first glance looks like a very fancy top or sports bra. You see more skin from a women in a bikini then you see here; how Facebook thought this was nudity is beyond me.
I'm not a fan of tatoo's but this is really beautiful, can't imagine the time and work it took to get that done and good for her for turning her experience into something positive for herself.
I think that tattoo is beautiful.
I keep looking at it, and though I'm not usually a fan of chest pieces, this one is obviously different and absolutely beautiful. And well done! I'm having a hard time seeing how this is nudity. She basically has the most beautiful, intricate bra/small shirt on her chest permanently. You can't see nipples period.
Jespren - I was thinking the same thing! I follow this one woman who does body art on completely bare chests so there is no support and in some you can even see nipples(they are painted, but you can still see them). I personally feel she is an artist and love her work(that's why I follow her) but why is she allowed to post pictures like I've described where you really can see breasts but this one(where there are no breasts and you can not see nipples) wasn't acceptable? That makes no sense.
Facebook takes down what is reported to them so obviously people were reporting this and the others that are not taken down are not being reported. That still does not make it right or even a viloation of their policy. They have no way of knowing that this is a female since the head is not there and they allow men to show nipple with no problem. Not my choice to tattoo something like that, but I love it none the less.
Facebook isn't seeking out the image for removal they are responding to users reporting this as banned content. I seriously doubt that a human even reviews most pictures that are reported and removed.