The Boobless Project

In the spring of 2025, a routine mammogram turned up an area of calcification in my left breast. A needle biopsy led to a diagnosis of atypical ductal hyperplasia, which led to an excisional biopsy to remove the cells and the tissue around them. My wonderful breast surgeon enrolled me in a high-risk clinic and explained what the diagnosis meant: a lifetime risk of breast cancer approaching 40 percent.

From there I had two paths. One was vigilance — screenings every six months, alternating between mammograms and MRIs. The other, available to me because of my risk, was a prophylactic double mastectomy.

I spent the summer talking it through with Phillip and doing a frankly ridiculous amount of research. In the end I knew my anxiety couldn’t live with the twice-a-year uncertainty. And a mastectomy was where I’d end up anyway if a screening ever found cancer.

After meeting with several plastic surgeons about reconstruction options, I chose Aesthetic Flat Closure. It came down to a few things. AFC is the most straightforward of the reconstruction options, with fewer surgeries and easier recovery. And I’ll admit that the promise of never having to wear a bra again was very, very appealing.

As I pictured life and my body following my flat closure, one word kept surfacing: boobless. Which brought back old memories of the calculator games we played in middle school — the ones where some carefully chosen math problem spelled out 5318008. “Ooooh… you spelled BOOBIES!” And, naturally, its more refined cousin: 55378008. BOOBLESS.

And what do artists do with all of it, the uncertainty, fear, and emotions? We pour it into the work. The middle-school jests were stamped into clay, and The Boobless Project began.

I also took inspiration from kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold, and the idea that a thing can be more beautiful for having been broken. A wonderfully talented local photographer captured me in a series of photos wearing my own gilded kintsugi scars.

Limited-edition regular and gilded Cortado Cups are now available, and the net proceeds will be donated to Going Beyond the Pink, a local organization supporting women facing breast cancer here in our community. Kintsugi-inspired Make Your Own Fortune Sets will be arriving fall 2026.

Thank you to Dr. Emily Marcinkowski, Anna, and Amber at Wilmington Surgical Associates and Dr. Adam Glener, Bethany, and Robin at Wilmington Plastic Surgery for their care and compassion; and Alisha Browne with Atlantic Boudoir for the wonderful experience and photos.