New social media rules which could “free the nipple” online have been praised by a tattoo artist who covers up mastectomy scars.
Lucy Thompson, the owner of Yorkshire Mastectomy Tattoos, has been banned or reported by Facebook and Instagram several times after posting photos of her 3D nipple tattoos.
Meanwhile, Instagram temporarily removed several images from her account in 2021, claiming the artist’s content ‘went against community guidelines for nudity or sexual activity’.
Specially trained in Canada, Lucy’s empowering work sees her ink nipples onto scarred breasts or cover them with designs.
But without social media, the charity would not be able to reach as many people.
Now, Meta could be set to overhaul its nudity rules on images of female nipples.
The artist, who set up her charity, The Nipple Innovation Project, in 2019, described the latest announcement as “huge” for the hard-fought cause.
The technology company’s oversight board described current rules around female nipples as "extensive and confusing, particularly as they apply to transgender and non-binary people".
The board added that "this creates confusion for users and moderators and, as Meta has recognised, leads to content being wrongly removed".
A spokesperson for Meta said: “Images showing post-mastectomy scarring and areola tattoos are absolutely allowed on Facebook and Instagram. We applaud the incredible work medical tattooists do for breast cancer survivors, and know our apps play an important role in helping these communities connect.
“By design, these tattoos often look extremely realistic, which means our technology – and even our content reviewers – don’t always spot the difference, so we do encourage people to make it clear when they’re posting an image that’s a tattoo. We understand how frustrating this can be, and we’ll always work to address enforcement mistakes as quickly as possible.”
Reacting to the news, Ms Thompson said: “A lot of people were sending me the article saying, do you know about this? Some people sent it to the charity as well. It’s a huge announcement for them to make.
“We’re a nationwide charity so we have artists allocated all over the country, so it has a knock-on effect [having posts reported].
“We get a lot of people that say, ‘I’ve found you through Instagram’. Social media’s fantastic for that.
“It’s just being able to use my art, my skill set, to create something that can help people appreciate their bodies after they’ve been through often traumatic surgery, that changes their life and takes away a huge part of their femininity.
“It’s a true honour and a gift to be able to recreate a missing body part and help give them confidence back and self esteem. It helps them rebuild themselves.
“They can look forward to their futures.”
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