I had a double mastectomy, no reconsruction and have several tatoos in various places. The tatoos hurt but not a terrible pain, more of an annoying pain. The good part is that the outcome is soooooo worth it! I love my tatoos and figure the temporary annoyance is worth it.

My daughter in law and son both got tattoos over their ribs it hurts but goes away. Fast
I can speak of the Mastectomy , expanders etc... only tattoo’s I have is my nipples which didn’t hurt because there is no feeling any more between my breasts and hips because of my choice of reconstruction..
But all that being said in my experience many people who have had tattoos or laser hair removal , wisdom teeth pulled , given birth etc..... will tell you it is the worst pain. After having Mastectomy, lymph nodes removed, expanders , reconstruction, your pain threshold is probably on a different scale than the person who told you. Besides that you could probably get numbing cream if you are concerned.

I'm actually thinking of getting a tatoo too, but on my forearm. They say all tattoos hurt, but worse close to the bone. If you go on Pinterest, they have a chart of where the tattoos hurts the most. I think I want a "Survivor " w a ribbon and the date if my diagnosis. For those who had mastectomy w ni reconstruction, I think a tattoo over the breastarea us very pretty. What kind of design are you planning on?

I don't know how painful a whole tattoo would be. I can say for me, while I was going through chemo and needed to wear the Neulasta Onpro device, it never hurt wearing it on my belly but did when I wore it on my arm.

Yeah, I like the butterflies too. I actually found a beautiful watercolor one.