The family gathered inside Shepke Studios Saturday afternoon likes to do things in a big way.

That was evident as the 13 mothers and daughters, aunts and nieces, sisters, cousins and friends literally painted the Pasadena tattoo parlor pink, with each woman getting a pink ribbon tattoo to symbolize their fight against breast cancer.

Cancer - more than one kind of it, in fact - has hit home several times for the large, close-knit family.

In 1999, family matriarch Margaret Vane passed away at age 92 after battling breast cancer. Her daughter Beverly Despeaux is a lung cancer survivor, and Ms. Despeaux's daughter-in-law,...