While some creators have credited OnlyFans with saving their lives, it was just hyperbole. But when Mikomi Hokina says it, she means it literally. 

Hokina, a Belgian cosplay creator with over two million Instagram followers, was in her twenties when a fellow creator noticed something unusual during a collaborative shoot. They were filming content together when her co-star touched something that didn’t feel right. A small, rocky lump in her breast. The kind of thing that could be easy to dismiss, but her co-star didn’t. She urged Hokina to get it checked. 

And when she did, she received a diagnosis of breast cancer. It turns out that Hokina carries the BRCA1 gene, a genetic mutation that significantly increases the likelihood of developing aggressive breast cancer. She’d known about the gene for a while, as her mother died of cancer and Hokina decided to have genetic testing done. But even though she knew the risk, getting that kind of diagnosis in her twenties, two hours before a flight to Thailand where she was scheduled to shoot more content, was a shock. 

“Two hours before my flight, I got the phone call that my test results were positive for cancer,” she recalled.

She did go to Thailand anyway. The doctors told her two weeks wasn’t going to kill her. So she worked, came home, and then broke the news to her loved ones. 

Hokina began chemotherapy quickly and found herself in deep grief over her hair. It may seem silly to some people, but for many women, their hair is central to their identity. It was for Hokina, especially since it was also part of her livelihood. “I was crying a lot, especially when I had to make that extra step of cutting my hair,” she said. “You lose so much and it was so patchy, so I decided to shave it short.” By Easter that year she was fully bald. She made a nest of the hair she’d lost, put eggs in it, and posted it as a holiday greeting. Dark humor as a survival strategy. 

“When I was sick, I used a lot of dark humor to cope with my illness in general,” she said.

Cosplay, unexpectedly, became part of how she rebuilt. Hokina had always been a cosplayer. She loved inhabiting fictional characters with both strengths and visible weaknesses, and the craft of costume construction is something she takes so seriously she wants to supply costumes for films one day. But during chemo, the hair loss opened a door she hadn’t previously considered: she could create content as Saitama, the bald protagonist from One-Punch Man, without a bald cap creating problems with her thick hair. 

The character she’d never been able to cosplay became, in the middle of her worst year, one of her most resonant. A bald hero with absurd strength, both physical and emotional. The dark humor of it lands differently when you understand the content. 

Hokina is 30 now. The cancer is, in her own words, “so far behind her.” She has built a six-figure career on OnlyFans, where she maintains a fan base that cosplay and content creation drew in. “I love it,” she said. “I keep my fans happy, and I’ve transformed my hobby into my job.” Cosplay is her passion, and OnlyFans is the platform (and income) that lets her do it. 

OnlyFans is also the reason Hokina is able to share her story today, all because a fellow creator on a shoot noticed something and encouraged her to check it out.