Some women who undergo arduous treatments due to breast cancer turn to nipple and areola tattoos as a way to reconnect with their bodies, but not all insurance covers the process.
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The American Cancer Society estimates that 1 in 8 American women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. A diagnosis often leads to arduous treatments that change the way a woman’s body looks. Rebecca Smith with member station KBIA has more about one option for women after treatment that’s helping them regain confidence in their bodies and in themselves.
REBECCA SMITH, BYLINE: Best friends Jennifer Rosenblad (ph) and Amy Appold (ph) have a lot in common. A love of Colin Firth in “Pride And Prejudice,” a skill for bargain hunting and they’ve both survived breast cancer.
AMY APPOLD: I was like, another way we’re connected.
(LAUGHTER)
APPOLD: Like, we have so much in common, and we love each other so much. And now we have this.
SMITH: Rosenblad was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2023 and decided right away to have a bilateral mastectomy, a removal of both breasts, because her mother had died from the disease. She says once she recovered from surgery, she was still left with large scars across her chest. And after doing some research about reconstruction options, she decided to get nipple areola tattoos.
JENNIFER ROSENBLAD: For me, the best thing was it broke up the scar because those scars that go all the way across, that’s all I would see. So it made me feel so much more normal once I did that.
SMITH: Dr. Ashley Wilbers is a University of Missouri breast surgical oncologist and says the field has moved toward less invasive surgeries that preserve the original breast tissue. But sometimes that isn’t possible, leaving women looking for interventions that help them reconnect with their bodies.
ASHLEY WILBERS: Reconstruction is a place that can step in then and say, OK, can we at least attempt to help restore that sense of what was lost?
SMITH: Wilbers says breast reconstruction is generally covered by insurance. But the challenge with nipple and areola tattoos is who should be doing the tattoo, medical professionals or specialized tattoo artists? Stacie Becker is a longtime medical tattoo artist in Florida, who’s tattooed hundreds of people. She says it’s important for the two worlds to come together. Someone needs to be a good artist but also needs to know the intricacies of tattooing damaged skin.
STACIE BECKER: Treatments cause different things to happen to skin. Radiated skin is very different from healthy skin. Certain medications can cause skin to react in different ways.
SMITH: Becker adds that the quality and cost of the tattoos can vary wildly based on who does them. She says a pair of hyper-realistic tattoos from an artist costs an average of $600 to $800 out of pocket. Some insurance does cover nipple tattoos but only if done by a medical professional, who may not have the same artistic ability. Nicole Rizzuto is a former certified surgical technologist and a licensed tattoo artist in New York. She’s also the president of the Alliance for Medical Tattooing, an organization calling for more guidelines and training standards, ensuring the quality and safety of the work done by members, and which hopes to get insurance to cover the procedure when done by tattoo artists.
NICOLE RIZZUTO: Even though the tattoo is a very small part of the entire procedure and process of breast reconstruction and mastectomy, they’re going to see it every day. They don’t see what work they did on the inside with removing all the tissue. But those nipples, that areola, like, that’s first and foremost.
SMITH: Rizzuto says she doesn’t want to take anything away from the medical team but, instead, wants tattoo artists doing nipple and areola tattoos to be trusted and seen as a valuable part of the care team. Jennifer Rosenblad says she’s incredibly happy with her choice, though she has no interest in getting any other tattoos. Amy Appold says she’s been inspired and is now having a breast revision done. She did receive an areola tattoo from a doctor 20 years ago, but it’s a simple, one-color circle. Appold says she isn’t sure what the new final look will be but says she’s excited to have more options.
APPOLD: I don’t know if I even have opinions about what they should look like, you know? And honestly, like, I’m just wanting to do it for me.
SMITH: And the friends want to help other survivors and have begun raising funds for women who may want to get nipple and areola tattoos of their own.
For NPR News, I’m Rebecca Smith in Columbia, Missouri.
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