Breast cancer is no laughing matter, and this year, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Womankind, Key West’s women’s health cancer.
But for the past four years, beating breast cancer has proven to be a helluva good time, thanks to the folks behind Tats for Tatas, a huge breast cancer awareness fundraiser for Womankind, conceived and hosted by Casey Vinall and Maria Gonzalez of Tattoos & Scars Saloon, 512 Greene St. Vinall owns the bar, and Gonzalez tends bar there, while also owning and operating Key Lime Bike Tours.
This year’s Tats for Tatas event is set for Wednesday, Oct. 15 from 7 to 10 p.m. and has grown enough to take over a block of Greene Street, from Simonton to Ann Street.
“This Tats for Tatas event is the most crucial fundraiser we’ll have this year,” said Cali Roberts, executive director of Womankind, which lost $80,000 when Monroe County officials cut the funding the county provides to local nonprofits in half. In addition, Womankind lost $60,000 when the state health department ended the contract it has had with Womankind for 25 years. The contract enabled Womankind to provide confidential family planning and STD services to local teens at no cost to young patients. The actual impact of the canceled contract amounts to much more than $60,000, Roberts said, because the contract made Womankind eligible to receive — and provide — free birth control to young women in the form of IUDs and pills.
“We spent years building trust with the teen girls of this community, and now that contract doesn’t exist, so a long-term IUD that used to cost us $125 will now cost $900,” Roberts said. “In addition, no one knows what’s going to happen to the subsidies that make Obamacare health insurance plans affordable. As of now, those subsidies are set to expire in December, meaning anyone with an Affordable Care Act policy (aka Obamacare) will have to pay an additional $400 to $1,000 a month in the next two months.
“We’re just trying to keep our doors open and continue serving the women of Key West and the Lower Keys,” Roberts said. “Our county officials, in keeping our taxes low, just shifted the responsibility to support local nonprofits to their constituents, because we won’t survive without the generosity of this community.”
Enter Tats for Tatas, and everyone who has supported the event since its inception four years ago.
“Due to these budget cuts to Womankind, we are striving this year to raise more money than ever before,” Vinally said. “But we couldn’t do any of it without the incredible generosity of the Key West community.”
Roberts also emphasizes the generosity of Vinall and Gonzalez.
“I don’t know what we’d do without Casey, Maria and the whole staff at Tattoos & Scars,” she said. “Casey donates absolutely everything from that event, including drink sale proceeds. The bartenders donate their tips and the silent auction is always the best in town.”
As for the organizers, the mission is personal.
“We have seen firsthand the individuals and families who benefit from the funds raised,” Vinall said. “Without this fundraiser, many people in the Florida Keys would not be able to afford the medical care they desperately need. By combining creativity, compassion and community spirit, Tats for TaTas not only honors those affected, but also makes a meaningful contribution to the fight against breast cancer. It’s more than just an event — it’s a way for the Key West community to stand together, show support and make a difference.”
And each year, the event has made a bigger difference than the year before.
“It has grown substantially year after year — far beyond what we ever imagined,” Vinall said. “In our first year, 2022, we raised $40,546. In 2023, that number increased to $69,383. By 2024, we reached $147,753, bringing our three-year total to $257,682. It’s truly remarkable what Key West can accomplish — especially considering this was raised through just three three-hour events.”
Roberts and Vinall thanked a guardian angel that appeared last year in the form of the Barchetta Foundation, a family-run foundation with connections to Key West. Last year, the foundation gave Womankind a $50,000 grant.
“This year, amazingly, the foundation said they’ll match, dollar for dollar, whatever is raised at Tats for Tatas,” Roberts said, adding that the funding will enable Womankind to continue providing essential women’s health services. Its free and low-cost mammograms are covered by Zonta women’s service club, but money raised at fundraisers pays for follow-up tests and appointments once a mammogram reveals breast cancer.
“Our funding cuts will severely affect the supplemental care that is needed after a breast cancer diagnosis, when the woman is already living in terror knowing something is wrong,” Roberts said. “We learned years ago that when women can’t afford that follow-up care, they just wait until a lump becomes big enough to send them to the emergency room, and that’s the worst possible way to beat breast cancer.”
Thankfully, Vinall and Gonzalez know the best way to beat it is by supporting Tats for Tatas on Oct. 15.
