Warning: This story contains graphic photos.
Unexpected dad Ethan Ybarra is warning his followers to take any changes they see to their skin seriously.
Ethan— who appeared on Season 4 of the TLC reality series with then-girlfriend Myrka Cantu— filmed before and after a surgery he had on Tuesday to have a cancerous mole removed from his face. In graphic photos posted to social media, 22-year-old Ethan showed the aftermath of the surgery, which required a chunk of skin to be taken out of his face.
“It’s done. I just got done with the procedure,” he said in a video. “Just want to let you guys know that melanoma cancer is no joke, I caught it super early, they had to go in and remove all around it, make sure they get every cell. If you feel like you have a mole that’s growing unregular, [or has] unordinary borders, go to the dermatologist, get it checked out. It’s not worth losing more of your face.”
Despite having to undergo the painful facial surgery, Ethan acknowledged that his prognosis could have been much worse had he not had the mole checked out when he did.
“They could have took my nose. They could have took maybe more of my lip,” he said. “But luckily it was caught super-early. It’s no joke. Please get yourself checked out and be safe.”
On Wednesday, Ethan posted a “Day 2” progress photo, showing his wound and telling his followers, “It doesn’t look so good.”
Ethan first announced that he had melanoma last month, telling his Instagram followers that he was headed to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, a well-known cancer center in Houston, Texas.
“Join me on my journey with melanoma cancer,” he captioned another Instagram Story from November.
On Wednesday, Ethan’s mother Michelle made a video for social media explaining how Ethan was diagnosed with melanoma.
“About two months ago, he sends me a message and says, ‘Mom, hey, my mole has gotten really big and it looks different,'” she said. “So he sends me a picture and it definitely is big. It used to be this small little mole, tiny, like a beauty mark. But in the picture that he sent me, it’s basically impeding already onto the lip, and [was] irregular and pretty dark. So, yeah, very concerning.
“But the last thing that I thought it was…it turned out to be,” she continued. “…he went to a dermatologist and had it checked and, lo and behold, Ethan was diagnosed with melanoma.”
Michelle stated that she works in the medical field and was aware how serious melanoma is.
“Melanoma is the worst of the skin cancers,” she said. “It is the skin cancer that can metastasize and invade organs and can lead to death and so that was very scary.”
@michybar♬ original sound – Michelle Ybarra
According to Michelle, Ethan underwent a PET scan and saw an oncologist and was informed the melanoma hadn’t metastasized. He also did CT scans, ultrasounds and spoke with the oncologists at MD Anderson before scheduling to have the mole removed.
Michelle revealed that, unfortunately, Ethan will need additional surgeries.
“When you remove melanoma, you have to take a big margin around it to get all of the cancer out,” she said. “And this is going to disfigure his face.”
She said that she is grateful, though, that the cancer was on Ethan’s face, as it enabled them to see it and catch it early.
“I honestly think if it were anywhere else, we would have not seen it and it would have gone unnoticed for years, and the outcome definitely would have been different. So I praise God for that.”
(The Ashley is including this helpful visual to use to analyze any mole or skin marking that looks suspicious to you. It also contains information on how to tell if your mole is normal or something that needs to get checked out.)
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When we last heard from Ethan, he was in trouble with the law after allegedly attempting to steal a tip jar from a marijuana dispensary. (As you do…)
Although he was arrested, his charges were dismissed in April 2025, according to court records obtained by The Ashley.
It appears that Ethan has been doing much better since the incident. In October, he received his Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification. He is now married with two other children, in addition to daughter Attalie, whom he shares with Myrka.
As The Ashley previously revealed, Myrka is currently pregnant with her fourth child. She welcomed her third child in January.
RELATED STORY: ‘Unexpected’ Star Myrka Cantu Reveals Infant Son Suffered Fractured Skull & Brain Bleed After Falling Off Bed While Co-sleeping
