especially growing up in an area where that was so important,” she said.Īfter beating cancer, she became focused on becoming a tattoo artist. “I think I kind of had the issues of trying to figure out where I stood in terms of religious views. She came out to family when she was 14, but it was only until she went to art school when she felt comfortable telling strangers. Orten said she was lucky to have a family who supported her and accepted her sexuality but she said she still had to come to terms with her homosexuality. “They took my scholarships away,” she said. Orten was able to successfully treat her cancer, and is now in remission, but when she was diagnosed with it in 2005, it turned her world upside down.īecause of her illness she had to take time off from school and wasn’t able to finish college. “You always find something to relate to with people, whereas before I used to separate myself a little, ‘Oh, I’m different,” she said, “It kinda comes back around where you find those nuisances and similarities you can relate to.” After her illness, she started to see what she had in common with others. That’s despite the fact that while growing up she felt like an outsider in Kentucky because of her sexual orientation and because she liked body art and modification when most people around her seemed so conservative. Having had a rare medical condition might have made her feel more isolated, but it didn’t. “You might have 300 cases a year, if that.” “It's not very common here at all,” she said.
When she was a junior in college, Orten was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Burkitt's lymphoma, which is more prevalent among children in Africa.