Lady Ink Documentary

Lady Ink is a short documentary about cosmetic tattooist, Debbie Casson, where we discover the important role her 3D nipple and areola "cherry on top" tattoos play in an individual’s breast cancer journey.

We've filmed everything, having pulled many favours, scored a few awesome sponsors, given a lot of koha, dug into our own pockets and invested a lot of time. Now we're at the post production stage, but we could really use another cash injection to get Debbie's incredible story across the line.

And her story really is something. Seemingly healthy, in her 40s, Debbie was diagnosed with two cancers - olfactory and breast - just four days apart. She endured a tsunami of treatments, came through, but for six years couldn't look at her nippleless reflection in the mirror. So, she trained overseas, came home and created her own.

The crux of our documentary is how a seemingly small, private thing – a 3cm diameter nipple – can in fact be a powerful full stop. To test that theory, we follow three women through the tattoo process, to see if a new nipple can restore some of the mana their cancer took away.

We want other breast cancer survivors to know about Lady Ink. To know about Debbie. Any help you can give us to do that would be gratefully received.

Thank you.

Helen Morgan, Corey Chalmers, Tanya Haitoua, Fraser Clements & Ryan Baigent.