• In Rennes, the Les Marie Rose association practices therapeutic tattooing.

  • The process allows people who have experienced trauma to rebuild themselves by reclaiming their bodies.

  • Cramped in their living room, the Marie Roses are looking to move to offer comprehensive post-traumatic support.

When they first crossed paths, one was just coming out of breast cancer while the other was in training to be a tattoo artist.

From this meeting was born the association Les Marie Rose, co-founded in the summer of 2019 in Rennes by Marie Disserbo and Marie Charuel.

"Our initial desire was to create a place of post-traumatic support for people affected by breast cancer", underlines Marie Charuel, the tattoo artist of the pair. But very quickly, the audience for their living room (

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), installed rue Jean-Marie Duhamel very close to the station, grew. "We were not refused people with other serious illnesses," she says.

Specialized in therapeutic tattooing, Marie Charuel thus treats all wounded bodies and souls.

For those people who have experienced a trauma, physical or mental, or suffered sexual or conjugal violence, the tattoo represents much more than a design engraved on the skin.

“It's an important step for them on the road to recovery, a form of catharsis,” says the tattoo artist.

It is a way for them to reclaim their body, to assert themselves and to regain confidence.

"

A mourning tattoo

When some choose to cover their scars or to cut them out, others engrave in their flesh the memory of a loved one.

This is the case of Sandrine who lost her little brother in the spring who committed suicide.

“We were eleven years apart but he was my friend and my confidant,” she says.

Not very trendy tattoo, yet it did not take long to decide.

"It was obvious, he had to be anchored in me so that he would accompany me for the rest of my life", emphasizes Marie.

A former colleague of Marie's work, it was quite naturally to her that she turned to get a tattoo.

“I didn't want to go to a classic living room,” she says.

I needed a caring and attentive person to accompany me in this process ”.

Since June, Sandrine has been wearing a hot air balloon on her left arm in memory of her brother who loved to travel so much.

"I see it through this drawing, it accompanies me in good times as well as bad times and that fills me with joy," she says.

Therapeutic, the approach of the Marie Rose is also intended to show solidarity.

For each tattoo produced, 10% of the price is donated into a common pot to finance therapeutic tattoos for people who cannot afford it.

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The Marie Roses are looking for a new place

Cramped in their living room, the Marie Roses want to move to a larger room.

In this third place, the association wishes to offer comprehensive post-traumatic support by welcoming various practitioners such as sophrologists, psychologists, sexologists or dieticians.

To help them in their process, the Marie Roses launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Helloasso platform.

The money collected will be used to finance the work and to develop this new place.

  • Society

  • Association

  • Solidarity

  • Sickness

  • Reindeer

  • Breast cancer

  • Cancer

  • Tattoo