In July 2020, Tanya Buxton launched the Celebrated Not Censored campaign.

Celebrated Not Censored originated as a way of raising awareness to issues facing the medical tattoo industry; the censorship of areola tattoos for breast cancer survivors.

Social Media platforms constantly remove these images claiming they ‘violate community guidelines on sexual and nudity activity’ which is both an outdated and sexist attitude towards the female body. This also prevents an incredibly positive service reaching survivors.

The Celebrated Not Censored campaign also bought to light just how many people are affected by other forms of social media censorship.

The media have brainwashed us into hating our bodies and that we need to fit into this ‘perfect’ body image. Creator Tanya Buxton feels that this mindset is responsible for a huge number of images that are censored online and contributes to people shaming those that do not conform to this ‘ideal’ body image.

The narrative surrounding body image and perception needs to change, and this is slowly happening. Our bodies should not be subjected to censoring and shaming online or in the media. In particular, these incredibly brave breast cancer survivors who wish to share their areola tattoos with the world, should be granted that right.

Tanya and the Mastectomy Tattooing Alliance (MTA) are campaigning to spread this message, to not only bring these issues to light and have them resolved by social media platforms, but also to raise awareness of the options and support available to breast cancer survivors through the wonderful world of tattooing.