October 29, 2025 • 5 mins
Diagnosed in 2020, June Belkovskis started chemotherapy the week Australia went into lockdown. She considers herself one of the 'lucky ones' compared to others who are left with long-lasting battle scars.
For more, Pink Ink Founder June Belkovskis joins.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
June Belkovskis is a breast cancer survivor diagnosed in twenty twenty.
She started chemotherapy the week Australia went into lockdown. She
considers herself one of the lucky ones compared to others
who are left with long lasting battle scars.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Now, for many women and men, the trauma continues every
day when they look in the mirror. June felt compelled
to do something about it, and in twenty twenty three,
pink Ink was born. Now she's helping breast cancer survivors
across Australia with remarkably realistic three D tattoos that recreate
the appearance of a nipple for those who have undergone
(00:35):
a mastectomy. And Johnny us now is pink Ink founder
June Belkovskis, Hello, June.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Love Is, see you Hi, thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
He just showed those images there and they're not real nipples,
but they're so incredibly realistic, aren't they. They've had to
blur them a little bit just because of regulations to
be broadcasting regulations. But tell us about the hugely positive
impact this is having the survivors and body image.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, Look, everybody's journey is different. The outcomes are different,
and how you mentally go through the whole process is
also different. But the one thing that you share everybody
shares is that you've experienced trauma. So some kind of
it's physical trauma, mental trauma, and emotional trauma. So we
(01:22):
kind of see these tattoos as the light at the
end of the tunnel. It's where you actually finalize your
whole experience. So these tattoos are restorative emotionally and in
a sense physically, and it allows survivors to reclaim their
bodies and become a powerful new version of themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Is a wonderful idea. Where did it come from? It
was the moment where you thought this is a good one.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It was a friend of mine who was actually had
gone through breast cancer. She opened my eyes to breast
cancer tattoos. I've never even heard of them happening. She
was actually saving money to have them done. She'd had
breast cancer about seven years before, had a mastectomy and
then reconstruction, but was literally living like a Bobby doll,
(02:10):
had no nipples at all, and so she was saving
money to have these done, and then life took over.
She had to actually use that money for something else
had to make her appointment resave, and when she finally
had them done, the change in her from an outsider
perspective was just phenomenal. So that's where it kind of
(02:31):
all hit me, is that I would like to see
any survivor be able to have these done and not
have funds be an obstacle for them to get them.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah. So we've also seen We've seen the ones which
are the medical tattoos, which are the nipple like ones,
but also those beautiful, illustrative ones which can you just
restore a woman's confidence. And that's what pinking is all about.
Absolutely not all tattoo artists can perform those medical type
nipple tattoos. Tell us about the artists that you were, So,
(03:00):
I know you've traveled overseas, yes to you know, so
tap into some really great stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Look.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, I went over to the States in July and
I met with Jason Lewis from the TV series Botch
So he does the paramedical tattoos on that show for
several seasons and that was an amazing experience because the
work that he does is quite incredible. There's not a
lot of awareness here in Australia. That this can even
(03:29):
be done, let alone within the industry, there being a
lot of people actually doing the three D you know,
nipple tattoos, the camouflage tattoos a little different. You know, really,
any tattooers can do those types of things, and it's
you know, it's the choice. It's personal choice, and it's
the applicants' personal choice as to who they go to
and what they have and because they need to be
(03:50):
comfortable with it, it's got to be their masterpiece. But
you know, we've been talking to Jason Ella in La
about bringing him here to do a kind of master
cloud so people can learn the techniques that he uses
and we can hopefully grow the amount of tattooists that
can do this around Australia.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
We know that you built pinking to help patients get
what they need there, so how can people get involved
both sponsors and candidates.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Look, if people want to apply, they can just go
to our website. They can download the application. It's a
pretty easy thing to.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Do.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They will need to get their medical professional to sign
off on it and then also find their tattooists. In
terms of supporting us, we do take donations. Community groups
are raising money for us traveling up to Kansas weekend
for a pinking paddle from a paddle club. That's raising
money for us. But what we do really need is
(04:47):
some corporate sponsorship because while we use our donations directly
for the tattoos, there is a cost for us to
get our information into hospitals and oncologist offices and breast
cancer surgeon officers, so we need some support there so
they can just reach out, you know, through oil website.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
June, I love that you've recognized that this is a
real need in this space and it's really unique and
you're doing wonderful.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
The only ones in Australia, so amazing stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
We're happy to help you get the word out there.
Thank you. For more information on how you can donate
or apply to become a candidate, head to pink ink
great name, pink ink Australia dot org dot AU.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Thank thank you very much.
June Belkovskis is a breast cancer survivor diagnosed in twenty twenty.
She started chemotherapy the week Australia went into lockdown. She
considers herself one of the lucky ones compared to others
who are left with long lasting battle scars.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Now, for many women and men, the trauma continues every
day when they look in the mirror. June felt compelled
to do something about it, and in twenty twenty three,
pink Ink was born. Now she's helping breast cancer survivors
across Australia with remarkably realistic three D tattoos that recreate
the appearance of a nipple for those who have undergone
(00:35):
a mastectomy. And Johnny us now is pink Ink founder
June Belkovskis, Hello, June.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Love Is, see you Hi, thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
He just showed those images there and they're not real nipples,
but they're so incredibly realistic, aren't they. They've had to
blur them a little bit just because of regulations to
be broadcasting regulations. But tell us about the hugely positive
impact this is having the survivors and body image.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, Look, everybody's journey is different. The outcomes are different,
and how you mentally go through the whole process is
also different. But the one thing that you share everybody
shares is that you've experienced trauma. So some kind of
it's physical trauma, mental trauma, and emotional trauma. So we
(01:22):
kind of see these tattoos as the light at the
end of the tunnel. It's where you actually finalize your
whole experience. So these tattoos are restorative emotionally and in
a sense physically, and it allows survivors to reclaim their
bodies and become a powerful new version of themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Is a wonderful idea. Where did it come from? It
was the moment where you thought this is a good one.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It was a friend of mine who was actually had
gone through breast cancer. She opened my eyes to breast
cancer tattoos. I've never even heard of them happening. She
was actually saving money to have them done. She'd had
breast cancer about seven years before, had a mastectomy and
then reconstruction, but was literally living like a Bobby doll,
(02:10):
had no nipples at all, and so she was saving
money to have these done, and then life took over.
She had to actually use that money for something else
had to make her appointment resave, and when she finally
had them done, the change in her from an outsider
perspective was just phenomenal. So that's where it kind of
(02:31):
all hit me, is that I would like to see
any survivor be able to have these done and not
have funds be an obstacle for them to get them.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah. So we've also seen We've seen the ones which
are the medical tattoos, which are the nipple like ones,
but also those beautiful, illustrative ones which can you just
restore a woman's confidence. And that's what pinking is all about.
Absolutely not all tattoo artists can perform those medical type
nipple tattoos. Tell us about the artists that you were, So,
(03:00):
I know you've traveled overseas, yes to you know, so
tap into some really great stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Look.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, I went over to the States in July and
I met with Jason Lewis from the TV series Botch
So he does the paramedical tattoos on that show for
several seasons and that was an amazing experience because the
work that he does is quite incredible. There's not a
lot of awareness here in Australia. That this can even
(03:29):
be done, let alone within the industry, there being a
lot of people actually doing the three D you know,
nipple tattoos, the camouflage tattoos a little different. You know, really,
any tattooers can do those types of things, and it's
you know, it's the choice. It's personal choice, and it's
the applicants' personal choice as to who they go to
and what they have and because they need to be
(03:50):
comfortable with it, it's got to be their masterpiece. But
you know, we've been talking to Jason Ella in La
about bringing him here to do a kind of master
cloud so people can learn the techniques that he uses
and we can hopefully grow the amount of tattooists that
can do this around Australia.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
We know that you built pinking to help patients get
what they need there, so how can people get involved
both sponsors and candidates.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Look, if people want to apply, they can just go
to our website. They can download the application. It's a
pretty easy thing to.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Do.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They will need to get their medical professional to sign
off on it and then also find their tattooists. In
terms of supporting us, we do take donations. Community groups
are raising money for us traveling up to Kansas weekend
for a pinking paddle from a paddle club. That's raising
money for us. But what we do really need is
(04:47):
some corporate sponsorship because while we use our donations directly
for the tattoos, there is a cost for us to
get our information into hospitals and oncologist offices and breast
cancer surgeon officers, so we need some support there so
they can just reach out, you know, through oil website.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
June, I love that you've recognized that this is a
real need in this space and it's really unique and
you're doing wonderful.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
The only ones in Australia, so amazing stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
We're happy to help you get the word out there.
Thank you. For more information on how you can donate
or apply to become a candidate, head to pink ink
great name, pink ink Australia dot org dot AU.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Thank thank you very much.
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