‘I wanted to get something happy’
A woman who lost her hair to stage four cancer at just 25 had a sun tattooed on her head as a “f*ck you” to the disease.
Madison Baloy was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma cancer – which forms in the glandular tissue – in March 2023 after experiencing stomach aches for a year.
The former kindergarten teacher was at a music festival with her friends in June 2022 when she started experiencing stomach aches.
Over the course of the year, she lost 60lbs and her tummy pain become more consistent, but she didn’t think anything of it.
Madison was teaching in her classroom when she started feeling nauseous and called in the school nurse who told her to go to the emergency room.
Madison was told she might have cancer and underwent a CT scan at, HCA Florida Brandon Hospital, Florida, which revealed a cluster tumours pushing down on her large intestine – causing the stomach aches.
After an emergency surgery and a biopsy in February 2023, Madison was diagnosed with stage four adenocarcinoma cancer in March 2023.
Due to the nature of her cancer and how advanced it is, Madison will never be considered cancer-free, but her cancer can be managed.
In what she describes as a “f*ck you” to the disease, Madison got a sun tattoo on her head – after losing her hair to the illness.
The tattoo took an hour to complete with Madison saying it wasn’t painful.
Madison – who had to give up her job as a kindergarten teacher due to her illness – said: “Some of my attitude towards cancer is probably naivety – being 25 and not being able to come to terms with being terminal.
“My diagnosis had made me idolise things differently.
“When I first started losing weight, I thought it was god answering my prayers. I thought the universe was giving me the perfect body – but I was dying and none of us knew.
“When I got diagnosed my family were in the hospital room with me, I had a jokey reaction and said my doctor should be paid for giving people bad news.
“He then told me I have stage four cancer and I said I didn’t understand why people were crying as I am gonna get the coolest head tattoo ever.”
“I am in a ‘f*ck it’ mentality. Honestly, what is the worst thing that is going to happen?”
So, on May 4, she got her head tattoo.
She said: “I called my tattoo guy, Nick, and asked about his availability. I decided on what I would get the night before, I wanted the sun on my head.
“I don’t know where I was coming from, but I wanted to get something happy.”
Speaking about how her life living with cancer, she said: “The biggest struggle has been my body image because I was happy and healthy.
“I was 25 years old – I was in my prime, I was teaching, making good money, going out with my friends – I felt amazing.
“In America, we idolise hustle culture and I was heavily into that culture and prioritised being the best teacher I could.
“Then it all flipped and now I have no hair and all these scars on my stomach from the surgery.”
She continued: “I will have this [cancer] forever – the best outcome long term is that I will be able to live and take a pill every day and just got in for regular appointments.
“It is hard, it is super hard. The hardest part is the reality shift I have had but it hasn’t got me down as much as I thought it would.
“I am doing chemotherapy every three weeks and it has been working in the sense that it’s keeping my cancer at bay.”
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