Social media standards stifle Alberta account holders from posting art, female breasts

Artists fight back against social media censors With nudity banned from Instagram, tattoo artists working with women with breast cancer are fighting back. Stephanie Thomas reports.

Calgary — If it’s an image of art, or a scar after an operation, then the most popular social media platforms are fine with posts of female breasts and it’s not considered nudity.

However, some Alberta account holders say their posts have been flagged, removed or in some cases their accounts have been shut down entirely for violating community guidelines, when they say their posts fit within the listed exceptions.

Carmelina Baccari is a paramedical tattoo artist who specializes in areola restoration — and is now clear of breast cancer herself.

She and Kacie Rainey work together to provide life-like nipple tattoos to clients after mastectomy surgeries free of charge, and post before and after photos on Instagram.

““It’s a very important thing to feel whole again as a woman. You never do feel whole again, but it really does complete a chapter,” said Baccari.

Both have received warnings from the social media platform about their images of their procedures, but Rainey says her entire account with a following of more than 10,000 is at risk of being shut down.

“Our work is very different what we’re being coined as, nudity and pornography,” she said.

“Essentially it's an amputated site that then we’re working on and implanting pigment and creating life like nipples and areola to match anatomy.”

The pair have reached out to Instagram to appeal the removal of posts, but say they have not had direct contact with anyone at the company.

 Body Art

For Lianne Moseley, the female body is often her canvas in her work as a body painter and make-up artist.

While her video posts and images have gone viral on other sites, a recent post of a depiction of a female robot was removed almost immediately from the wildly popular site TikTok.

“I got continually reported so much that my entire account got taken off of TikTok,” said Moseley.

She said it can take her up to 10 hours to transform into characters using body paint.

A large part of the breast is covered with a layer of material pasted on the nipple, and then painted over.

“What I’m doing is art. A lot of what we are doing and what people are posting out there its art and we are not doing it in order to get some sort of rise of people or to offend anyone.”

TikTok’s website reads: “we do allow exceptions around nudity and sexually explicit content for educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic purposes. For example, content discussing or showing mastectomy scars is allowed.”

Facebook, which owns Instagram, lists a similar set of community guidelines on its website.

CTV News reached out to the social media platforms for comment but did not hear back in time for our deadlines.

Moseley says her requests for answers from TikTok have gone unanswered.