It doesn’t get much more terrifying than learning that you’ve been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.

For many people, learning of a cancer diagnosis can be completely debilitating, just like many of life’s curveballs. During these difficult times, you trust what a doctor tells you, but what happens when even the best doctor is mistaken? A California woman learned the hard way that sometimes a false positive can be the best thing to happen to you.

The mother of four was probably devastated when she went for a recent PET scan to learn that her cervical cancer had spread to her pelvis. She was scheduled to have her reproductive organs removed, when the scan left doctors concerned that the cancer cells were spreading so quickly. The doctors went through with the surgery, but were shocked to find that the cells that were shown to be cancerous during the scan were actually completely normal.

The cells near her pelvis that lit up on the imaging machine were actually ink deposits from the multiple tattoos that covered her legs. The woman’s doctor, Dr. Ramez Eskander, told CBS in the following video, “What we wanted to do is educate physicians, patients, families. When there is a PET scan that shows a bright lymph node, if a patient has significant tattoos or body art, than you have to be cognizant that these might be false positives.”

If you know someone who has multiple tattoos, this is an interesting story to share with them, but either way, it’s completely shocking.

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