Woman wakes up from surgery to discover tattoo from arm now on her tongue

She woke up with her tattoo in a completely different place

Harriet Trewhitt, 21, was diagnosed with tongue cancer after suffering with a painful ulcer for months.

The acting student, from Northallerton in North Yorkshire, had to undergo a grueling emergency six-hour operation to rebuild her tongue.

Doctors at University College London used skin from her left forearm, which included a semi colon tattoo, to reconstruct her mouth.

When she came to she discovered her beloved tattoo had vanished - and was now on the bottom of her tongue.

Harriet, a support worker, said: “It was May this year that I was diagnosed.

''I got an ulcer in December 2024 and didn’t think much about it. The doctors sent me to the dentist, who then sent me to A&E.

"The doctors thought it was trauma from my seizures from where I bite my tongue.

''When it didn’t heal they rushed me for a biopsy and discovered it was squamous cell carcinoma.

“They took skin and blood vessels from my left arm and reconstructed half of my tongue. I didn’t know you could do that until they did.

''They tried to do it with from my leg but there was too much fatty tissue. I did ask if they could do it on my right arm, but they said they couldn't."

Harriet got the tattoo on her 18th birthday and the semi colon represents resilience for those suffering with depression.

After the original was removed, she's had the tattoo recreated on her right arm.

She said: “I’ve had severe depression and anxiety since I was 12-years-old or so. A semi colon is used when authors want to end a sentence but carry on.

The person is the author and the semi colon is their life. It’s a person wanting to end their life but they’ve decided to carry on.

“I got the tattoo two days after I turned 18. Now it’s on the right side of my tongue, underneath and towards the back.

“It’s just a kind of a weird thing about me to have it there now, but it doesn't bother me.

''I felt really bare without it so I had to have it redone on my right arm."

The young actress says she's now had to take part in months of speech therapy to regain her voice as she prepares for her masters in 2026.

Harriet added: “It’s just a kind of a weird thing about me to have it there now, but it doesn't bother me. I felt really bare without it so I had to have it redone on my right arm.

“Initially the recovery was very difficult. It’s a time that I do deal with a lot of flashbacks. When I went into surgery I got incubated which was very scary.

“I was very lucky with the team at the university college in London, they were so caring and kind.

''My friend got up at 3am to be with me in London for the first time for my first surgery.

“I was in hospital for ten days but I was trying to get out of there as long as possible.

“With the reconstruction my salivary glands have been affected more than I thought, but you can learn to live with it.

“We did a performance of Anything Goes in October, which was incredible. To be able to do it without an issue was incredible.”