Stephanie Kelly was no stranger to breast cancer — the 42-year-old mother of four had watched her own mother fight it, twice. So when she did a test for the BRCA1 gene mutation and it came back position, Kelly, who also suffers from health issues like fibromyalgia, decided to move quickly to get a double mastectomy as a preventative measure.
But as she shared to People, Kelly, in addition to her family and loved ones, had someone else on her side: Wonder Woman. As she shared, "I have always loved Wonder Woman, and during this time I began to joke that I was going to be like Wonder Woman and be strong and unfazed by the things I needed to do that scared me."
Kelly's Wonder Woman connection was so strong that she was showered with gifts of the fabled Amazon warrior, but it was her own decision to adopt the superhero in ink, and she worked with tattoo artist Jamie Epsy, at Lovely Monkey in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, to come up with a design that combined Wonder Woman and phoenix imagery into a tattoo all Kelly's own.
Now, Kelly sees her tattoo not just as a cover-up, but as a form of empowerment. As she put it, "With my other health issues, I'd never really been very confident of my body. But now, I already don't fit the mold of what the world expects, so there is a sense of freedom that comes with that."
"But then on top of this, I have this image of strength, power and fearlessness across my chest and that continues to build me up. I see my scars now as entirely positive."
Read Kelly's whole story here.
