WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES. Lisa Christian said she used to ‘tan to feel pretty’ in her younger years before finding a worrying dot that led to an extreme reconstruction job
A pale mum who ‘tanned to feel pretty’ needed such extreme facial reconstruction for a cancerous ‘dot’ on her nose that she hid indoors for fear of scaring kids.
Lisa Christian says she spent her younger years lying in the sun to try and tan her ‘pale’ skin to feel pretty. At prom she remembers feeling like a ‘ghost’ standing next to her tanned sisters due to her porcelain-like complexion. But when the now 61-year-old noticed a pin-sized dot on the right side of her nose begin to bleed in the shower in December 2025, she decided to get it checked out.
Following a biopsy in March 2026, the former florist was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma – a type of skin cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma is typically a slow-growing form of skin cancer and usually remains in the outer layer of the skin.
Lisa claims she was told the cancer had spread to the cartilage of her nose, which left her needing surgery in April 2026 to have it removed. In this operation she had a flap cut from her forehead to place over her nose to reconstruct her face.
Shocking photos show the mum-of-one with a large scar right down her face from where her ‘scalp was pulled forward’ and reattached to her nose.
While healing from going under the knife she claims she felt like she was wearing a ‘mask’ and worried about leaving the house for fear of ‘scaring children’.
Growing up, the gran-of-one claims she always wore sunscreen when out in the sun and is now urging others to protect their skin from a young age as skin cancer can affect anyone.
Lisa, from Tennessee in Nashville, US, said: “That dot, the cancer, had gone to the cartilage of my nose. And so, it was all under the skin. Just because the dot is little on the outside doesn’t mean it’s little on the inside.
“[In the operation], they take what they call a flap and they make a cut in the front of your forehead and then they go up through your hairline and get skin.
“They then had to pull your scalp forward. They basically scalp you and pull this forward and then they take this flap and turn it and keep the skin attached so that when it goes onto your nose it has the blood flow.
“[After surgery], I think I waited two to three days before I looked in the mirror. It was actually by accident that I saw myself. I had gone to the bathroom and I went to brush my teeth and looked up, it was there.
“I cried. The hardest thing is, I’m not a vain person but the isolation I feel – I’ve been in this house for months and not gone anywhere. I order my groceries and when they bring them, I walk out on my porch and I don’t really think.
“I can still see it because it’s like wearing a mask but after a month you [forget it’s there]. They bring the groceries in on the porch and they look up at me and they’re in shock.
“I feel like I can’t leave the house at the moment as I don’t want to scare some little kids but then, on the other hand, if it scares a teenager and they don’t go in the sun that’s good.
“I grew up quite pale and I always tried to achieve a tanned look like my sisters. If we went to prom and everyone put their dresses on and they’d all look like Barbie dolls and I’d look like a ghost.”
Alongside the dot on her nose, Lisa also had a ‘dry spot’ above her lip removed which also turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma.
Since January 2026, she has now had three surgeries in total to help reconstruct her face and may need to undergo one more procedure.
Lisa said: “As far as being scarred, I’m not worried about the scar tissue, but the emotional scars, that’s a big one. The emotional scar of knowing how they had cut up my face and feeling like I did it to myself. That’s a big one.”
Since her skin cancer diagnosis, Lisa is now urging others to think twice about sitting out in the sun and urges them to protect their skin from a young age.
Lisa said: “When you’re 18 or 19 years old, you just say ‘I’ll just take care of my skin when I’m older’. No, you need to [take care of your skin then] or you’re going to have problems when you’re older.
“They are graphic photos but some of these young girls need to see them. A lot of the time they don’t think it’s going to happen to them. If it’s graphic enough, they may lay in the sun and think, ‘wait a minute, I remember what that girl’s nose looked like’.
“I would say be happy with who you are and be happy with the complexion you are and don’t feel the need to go out and tan in order to feel pretty.”