Matuschka is a New York based artist of many talents who recently gave an interview to MAMM. Her personal website is http://www.matuschka.net/
My 1993 self-portrait became a worldwide sensation
The picture is taken from her website.
The interview
The Body Beautiful
In her famous self-portrait, photographer Matuschka gave the world its first look at mastectomy. Now she explains how she turned herself into a work of art.
By Matuschka
I never wanted a tattoo. Not even by the time I’d booked the session. It was the summer of 1968, and my friend, Nona, and I were two unruly nymphets hanging out with a motorcycle club whose rite of initiation involved engraving your man’s name on your belly. I was only 13, so I needed a fake ID and Nona to chauffeur me across state lines, since tattoos were illegal in New Jersey at the time.
We went to a guy named “Danny” who operated a tattoo parlor out of his parents’ garage. His needles were the size of hypodermic syringes, and the ink he would use on my body looked like a mixture of soot, cigarette ash and motor oil.
…
Seven years later I was a fashion model going by only my last name. In the ’70s and ’80s, it was rare for a model to have either breasts or tattoos. I had both. I knew there was no intrinsic beauty in this tattoo, and the modeling agents and photographers thought the same way, but I couldn’t afford the laser surgery to remove it.
…
By 1980 I discovered another way to make a living off my body and became a photographer specializing in nudes. I didn’t have to worry about modeling fees—I just employed myself. Sometimes I became annoyed seeing that little black blob in the photos, but finding ways to get around it led to a highly successful series sold in galleries and published in magazines.
Soon enough I’d have bigger concerns than Joanne splayed upon my belly: In 1991, I underwent a lumpectomy for a tiny tumor in my voluptuous right breast. Then my surgeon misread the pathology report, leading to what I call a “mistake-to-me,” and sliced my right breast off. [Matuschka won a malpractice suit against her surgeon for the unnecessary mastectomy.]
Back then, a one-breasted woman had three options to transform her asymmetry into something society might find acceptable: prosthesis, implants or a prophylactic mastectomy of the other breast. None seemed suitable, comfortable or right for me.