Donation Only Cancer Ribbon Tattoo Day to benefit the Shawn Hanff Family

Start: Aug. 16, 2011, 8 p.m.

End: Aug. 17, 2011, 3 a.m.

Please join us at Big Easy Tattoo Studio on Tuesday, August 16 from 1 PM to 8 PM. This is a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED event and appointments will not be accepted. We will be doing free cancer ribbon tattoos with a required $10 minimum CASH donation. You may choose any color cancer ribbon that you wish. The tattoo must be all one color and the size cannot be changed. We will also not include any lettering or words on these free tattoos. ALL proceeds will be donated to Cary and Shawn to assist them with mounting medical bills they are facing due to Shawn's health issues. Shawn and his wife Cary are friends of ours and are wonderful people. They have two precious children, Dylan and Caelyn. They are a beautiful young family and are having to deal with a very rough time in their lives right now. Here is Shawn's story:

When Shawn was just a child, he was diagnosed with Alport Syndrome. This is a genetic disease that affects the kidneys and ears and causes some vision problems. Within several years of diagnosis, he was in kidney failure. He received his first kidney transplant from his father during his middle school years. A couple of years later, that kidney was rejected. He then received a cadaver kidney that was a perfect match. For 17 years the kidney functioned perfectly. Recently, Shawn has started to have many bouts of infections. During one of his hospital stays they found a mass on his kidney. He was later diagnosed with Renal Cell Carcinoma (Kidney Cancer). The doctors were very surprised and stated that they estimate him to be one of maybe 12 in the world to have cancer on a transplanted kidney. In order to rid him of the cancer they are talking of having to remove the kidney completely. This will force Shawn to live a life that includes dialysis and waiting for another kidney.

Please come out and get yourself an awesome cancer ribbon tattoo and you can feel even better about helping these wonderful people! I know they will appreciate everyone that comes out to support this worthy cause. If you live out of state or will not be able to make it to this event, we have created a PayPal site for the family. You may donate online and all of the money will be given to Cary and Shawn on the night of the benefit. The link to the PayPal site is available on the Big Easy Tattoos Wall.

Thank you!