Harriet Trewhitt, a 21-year-old acting student from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, has been left with a unique souvenir from her cancer treatment: the semicolon tattoo from her arm is now under her tongue. The tattoo was transplanted during reconstructive surgery after doctors removed half of her tongue due to stage two squamous cell carcinoma.
Trewhitt first noticed a painful ulcer on her tongue after an epileptic seizure, but it persisted for three months. A biopsy confirmed cancer, and she underwent two operations totalling 12 hours at University College London Hospital. Surgeons took skin and blood vessels from her arm, including the small semicolon tattoo, to rebuild her tongue.
'I first saw it in the hospital when my tongue was all stitched up,' she said. 'It's under my tongue but reachable. When I looked at it, I thought, I've got a tattoo on my tongue, this is crazy.' She now considers it a good anecdote for dating apps like Hinge, where users share two truths and a lie.
After surgery, Trewhitt had to relearn how to talk and swallow. She also underwent proton beam therapy at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester to prevent the cancer from spreading. She now has a slight lisp and worries about her acting career, but remains positive. 'I tried to stay very positive throughout the whole ordeal, because I felt that was the only way I could cope,' she said.
Trewhitt has since had the semicolon tattoo redone on her other arm, saying she felt 'a bit bare' after the original was removed. She hopes her story encourages others to watch for symptoms and not delay seeking medical advice.
