Many people are confused about the permanence of 3D Nipple Tattoos. You may be wondering Do Nipple Tattoos fade?

Do Nipple Tattoos fade? A Permanent Nipple Tattoo created by a specialist Nipple Tattooist using the correct ink, equipment and techniques should not fade away. It is made using the same ink as a body art tattoo and will last a lifetime if cared for properly.

However, many Nipple Tattoos are created by Cosmetic Tattooists using semi-permanent ink, equipment and techniques designed for cosmetic effects. These Nipple Tattoos will fade away somewhere between 6 months to a few years.

It is of crucial importance to understand the difference and to research the experience, background and techniques of your Nipple Tattooist before booking to ensure your Nipple Tattoos don’t fade away. 

Making sure you get a Nipple Tattoo that won’t fade away and disappear.

It can be very confusing when you are starting to look into getting a Nipple Tattoo. It’s so important you understand why some Nipple Tattoos will disappear before 6 months are up and why some are permanent. 

Many Cosmetic Tattooists offer areola tattooing as an addition to their other cosmetic related skills. They create Nipple Tattoos using the same equipment and pigments designed for eyebrows, lip liner etc. The equipment and pigments are perfect for the soft effects needed for eyebrows. It’s important that the pigments fade in this application as eyebrows change and age over time and need to be adjusted. This is the perfect application for these pigments and some skilled cosmetic tattooists are creating beautiful eyebrow work.

However, Nipples do not need to be adjusted with age and need to be permanent for the mental well being of the client. Nipples which fade away and constantly need retouching can be upsetting, never allowing the client to put Breast Cancer behind them. Fading cosmetic pigments should not be used for this application. 

The cosmetic tattoo industry operates on a model of repeat business where clients keep returning for top-ups on an ongoing basis. This is generally around yearly for Nipple Tattoos. Many Cosmetic Tattooists charge around 3/4 of the initial fee for a colour top-up.

Bearing in mind that this may need to be repeated approximately 1-2 yearly and indefinitely this can mean a significant lifetime financial outlay if you want to keep your Nipple Tattoos looking realistic without fading.

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Do Nipple Tattoos Fade? How to get a PERMANENT Nipple Tattoo after Breast Cancer that WONT fade away…

The differences between Specialist Permanent Nipple Tattooists and Cosmetic Tattooists

Why do Nipple Tattoos fade if done by the NHS?

Firstly I need to say that the NHS and Breast Care Nurses, in particular, do a wonderful job. However, the truth is that they are trained as nurses, not specialist artistic tattooists. 

They do the best they can with the pigments and equipment they are provided with and the techniques they are taught but it’s difficult for them to achieve a quality result that won’t fade.

The NHS sends nurses on a two-day training course as it obviously can’t put them through an intensive two-year tattoo apprenticeship with all that entails. However, the 2-day course does little to prepare them for the challenging work they are then asked to carry out.

The difficulties they come up against are…

• Limited pigment range.
  They are provided with semi-permanent pigments which have a limited range of colours. The available colours are softer and so are not very good at creating the highlights and details for the Nipples to look realistic or to match an existing nipple. Of course, they are semi-permanent so will fade quickly.
• Needle limitations.
  There is often a limit set on the number of needles they are allowed to use. They are often only allowed one or two different needles types to work with. A detailed Permanent Nipple Tattoo may need 4 or 5 different needle types to achieve realism. Scar tissue may require a variety of different needles to achieve a result with good retention.
• Limited Experience.
  Sadly a 2-day course just doesn’t prepare anyone for the kind of delicate, radiation-damaged and scarred skin they are likely to encounter after breast cancer surgery. It’s not the kind of specialist tattoo work you want to be attempting after a 2-day training course and needs experience..
• Time limitations.
  Hospitals understandably have to run to budgets and see a certain number of patients a day. Nurses may be required to complete one nipple tattoo patient in an hour. This leaves little time for colour matching, getting the right placement and positioning and detailed work.
• Technique limitations.
  On the training course that they undergo, nurses are given a “one size fits all” standard technique to use. This may not work on certain types of skin or scarring. Poor technique results in poor pigment retention as the ink is not inserted into the correct skin layer and will fade quickly.
• Artistic Limitations.
  Nurses are generally not artistically trained and so don’t have the art skills needed to create a realistic nipple or a copy of an existing nipple.

I love the NHS and the Breast Care Nurses especially are absolute stars. Whilst most nurses do the absolute best they can, the training and equipment they are given make it frustratingly impossible for them to create a nipple that won’t quickly fade away. 

Tattooing is a skill which looks deceptively simple to the observer leading people to think it is easily picked up from scratch on a short course. However, it takes years of experience to create a high-quality permanent outcome without causing further damage, especially on difficult scarring.

Checklist for finding a Nipple Tattooist who can create non-fading Nipples

Case Study

Failed, faded NHS Nipple Tattoo done three times and Rescue Permanent Nipple Tattoo

This lady came to me after 3 failed attempts at Nipple Tattooing in Hospital. She was initially tattooed by her surgeon under full theatre conditions. She was shocked and worried at how much this had potentially cost the NHS. 

The pink shiny disc of the areola area in the photo is thin translucent scar tissue which has been caused by overworking of the skin.

Overworking can happen when the equipment used is underpowered and/or the technique of the operative isn’t correct causing difficulty implanting the pigment. Someone who isn’t experienced working with scar tissue will then go over and over the area in an attempt to get some colour in which seems to have happened here. This damages the skin and causes a shiny delicate type of scar tissue which is very difficult to subsequently fix as it won’t take ink easily.

The surgeon in this case also used the wrong type of skin marker to mark the areola on. The ink from the blue marker was subsequently tattooed into the deeper layers of tissue. This can be seen as the discoloured semicircle around the lower edge of the areola.

The lady reported this initial Nipple Tattoo took a long time to heal and then faded quickly.

She then returned to the hospital twice for Nipple Tattooing by her Breast Care Nurses. Whilst they did as good a job as they could with the equipment provided, they could not get ink to take in the Nipple and each attempt faded within weeks. This was because the area was so scarred and delicate and now would not take ink, especially from low powered cosmetic equipment. Any further attempts with low powered equipment risks further damage to this fragile scarred area.

I was able to use advanced techniques to build up the pigment gently into the scarring. This will be the only way to get the scarring to accept pigment now after the damage caused and it may take several sessions to get the retention needed as we build up the ink gently without causing further damage to this fragile area.

The photo shows the result after the first rescue session. She will probably need another one or two sessions. Once finished, this Nipple Tattoo will be permanent.

Free consultation

I really hope this post has given you the information needed to understand why some Nipple Tattoos fade away and how to make sure you get a Nipple Tattoo that is permanent.

If you have any further questions I offer a FREE no-obligation consultation where you can chat through your questions. This can be done either in person or over the phone or email. Just get in touch using the contact details below.

I have tried to create a resource of everything you may want to know when considering a Nipple Tattoo after Breast Cancer. For this reason, it has ended up becoming a bit of an epic post so I have added in an index to help you navigate more easily. I hope you find this information about Nipple Tattoos useful.

Helen x

Nipple Tattoos can mark the end of your breast cancer journey

Your breast cancer diagnosis is the beginning of a long journey. Your journey can lead you into some of the darkest and most frightening situations you have ever had to deal with, situations which require all your inner strength and courage. 

Cancer cruelly tests the strength and courage of the strongest person and at the end of the day, even with wonderful family support, it’s a journey you must travel alone… 

The treatment is arduous and takes a toll on your mental and physical health. Once you have dealt mentally with diagnosis, another hurdle lies in your path, the choice of whether or not to have reconstructive surgery. 

Reconstruction techniques have come forward leaps and bounds in recent years and talented surgeons can recreate your breasts with amazing skill, using a variety of complex techniques to replicate the shape and profile of a natural contour. Sadly, though, surgery often means that you have to lose your natural nipple along with your breast tissue in order to make sure that cancer doesn’t return. 

However perfect the shape of the reconstructed breast is, the lack of a nipple can make your breast feel unnatural and not a part of you. 

As women, we identify closely with our breasts and when these are taken away or dramatically altered this can be disorientating and make you feel that you have lost some part of your soul and spirit too… 

When you catch a quick glimpse of yourself as you walk past a mirror, without a nipple you may feel dissociated and that you don’t recognise your own body anymore. Little wonder that at the end of this long, dark and arduous trek, you may feel that you just want to “feel like me again” and put everything behind you. 

How can you move forward with your life and complete your cancer journey? 

Permanent Nipple Tattoos can help… 

What Are The Options For Recreating your Nipples after Mastectomy?

Reconstructive surgery has taken huge steps in recent years. Post-mastectomy, new techniques allow surgeons to create incredible new breasts, often using your own tissue rather than implants. The results are amazing and allow you to rebuild your confidence and body image after fighting cancer, an incredibly important step on the journey to recovery. 

However, at the end of this journey is the finishing touch, the nipple and areola complex. 

During the majority of life-saving mastectomy surgery, it’s impossible to keep your nipple and it must be removed with other breast tissue. If a new breast shape is created it will only replace the shape of the breast and not the nipple and areola structure. 

Your options up to this point have been limited… 

Surgical Reconstruction of your Nipple. 

Surgeons can create a bump on the breast out of your own skin to replicate a nipple. However, over time the bump will generally flatten back down into the breast so the procedure may need to be repeated.

 The areola skin around the nipple will still need to be coloured by tattooing to give the correct appearance. Nipple Tattooing can really help here to give a more natural appearance.

Silicone Prosthetic Nipples which stick onto your breast. 

These have the advantage (or disadvantage) of showing as a bump through clothes but may slip off or dislodge in some situations and let’s face it, it’s a pain to have to stick your nipples on every day! 

They may also be irritating if you have skin sensitivity or scarring.

Semi-Permanent Cosmetic Nipple Tattoos, performed by your surgeon, NHS Nurse or a Cosmetic Tattooist.

After surgery, many NHS hospitals offer people the chance to have nipples tattooed by the surgeon who performed the reconstruction or a nurse in their practice using semi-permanent pigments. 

Whilst surgeons and nurses possess incredible medical skills, they generally don’t have the artistic or tattooing training and experience of skin needed to create a realistic nipple. 

To create a realistic nipple tattoo requires a high level of skill in the specialist field of Artistic Medical Tattooing.

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Nipple Tattoos after Breast Cancer – Nipple Tattoo FAQ

Permanent Nipple Tattoos. A new option after Breast Cancer. 

As a professional tattooist and a woman, I felt that people were nearing the end of their cancer journey and then being offered less than optimal choices. I wanted to be able to offer something more. I felt that there should be a better, higher quality permanent option to enable you to get as close as possible to your body before surgery, to reclaim your body confidence, restore your spirit and put cancer behind you. 

The Real Issue – Non-Permanent Ink & Fading Nipple Tattoos 

However, the real issue, which many people don’t realise is that in most cases, micro-pigmentation inks are generally used, rather than true permanent tattooing inks. 

Micro-pigmentation inks are designed to fade quickly over time for readjustment in cosmetic applications. These pigments are great for eyebrows but not so good for nipples. They have a limited colour palette and lack the wide range of colours needed to create a realistic artistic 3D Nipple and Areola Tattoo. 

The use of these inks results in nipples with no definition, which will quickly look faded and patchy as the ink is absorbed by the body. 

You will need to return for regular colour top-ups every couple of years, meaning potential extra future maintenance costs or visits to the hospital, something you may want to put behind you… 

In addition, as the inks are absorbed by the body, the nipple can fade unevenly and look pale, patchy, orange and unreal, ruining the illusion of a real nipple. 

Often, the nipples created will be red blobs with little or no shading or definition, sometimes described by women who receive them as “salami slices”. They may be the wrong size or colour.

When permanent isn’t permanent

To add to the confusion, cosmetic tattooists often refer to their pigments as permanent {as in Permanent Cosmetics}, even though they are designed to fade away slowly. This refers to the fact that they last longer than daily applied cosmetics. However, they are not permanent in the generally understood use of the term.

Likewise, cosmetic tattooists lack the experience and artistic background to do this delicate and important work. Their equipment is designed to create fine hairs on eyebrows, lip liner etc. It’s important to use the right equipment to tattoo breast tissue which may be scarred and fragile and to have experience of working with such delicate skin. 

The results are often less than ideal. This is a huge shame when you have come so far on your recovery journey. The nipple should be the final piece of the puzzle. The cherry on the cupcake to make surgery complete. 

I believe that to be offered less than optimal nipples at this stage is unacceptable. 

Nipple Tattoo Pigments Colour Test Swatch

Why go to a specialist tattoo artist for a Nipple Tattoo?

Specialist Tattoo Artists, use the highest quality permanent tattoo inks to ensure that the Nipple Tattoos won’t fade away. 

Having an artistic background and extensive experience of tattooing different kinds of skin and scar tissue means that they can create an incredibly detailed and realistic 3D image of a nipple on the flat skin of the reconstructed breast. 

By the careful artistic positioning of shading and highlights, the appearance of a raised nipple can be created, even though there is no actual nipple bump there. 

They are essentially tattooing on a detailed and delicate portrait of a nipple. The overall effect is of a natural nipple and areola and is the finishing touch making the reconstructed breast appear natural and complete and this is permanent. 

This is why using a Specialist Tattooist with an artistic background is very important to get the best results possible. 

The differences between Tattoo Artists who specialise in Nipple Tattoos and Cosmetic Technicians.

There are many Cosmetic Technicians who offer Nipple Tattoos and areola Tattoos. However, it’s important to understand the differences between specialist Tattoo Artists and Cosmetic Technicians before you make a booking, especially if you are looking to receive permanent Nipple Tattoos.

In this medical research paper “Nipple-Areola Tattoos: Making the Right Referral” it was found that many nurses and referring clinicians believe that tattoo artists, who are outside of the traditional healthcare setting, could provide better outcomes for patients. However, they aren’t letting the patients know about the possibility of accessing this service so more work is needed in this area in order to fully advise patients of their options.

Read the Research Paper here.

Why is it so important that Nipple Tattoos are Permanent?

I believe that it is of absolutely crucial importance that Nipple Tattoos are created using permanent ink.

• The main reason is the psychological benefits this gives to clients. A permanent Nipple Tattoo allows you to put cancer behind you and come to the full stop at the end of your cancer  journey. If you are having to return for top-ups regularly then it’s hard to find that point of closure.
• To receive a Nipple Tattoo, only to find it fade away within a year can be very psychologically distressing. This can lead to depression and body image issues as well as lack of confidence.
• Many people who receive a semi-permanent nipple tattoo become disillusioned with getting top-ups. They often stop trying after 2 or 3.
• A semi-permanent NHS tattoo can mean having to keep going back to the same hospital where you had your cancer treatment, which can be a mental trauma. I know from personal experience that it’s a great relief when you don’t have to visit there any more.
• Another important consideration is cost. A Cosmetic Technician will charge a top-up fee every time you need a colour boost. Often this is a similar price to the initial cost of getting the tattoo. As a semi-permanent Nipple Tattoo can fade at approximately 6 months to 2 years, this can mean a large ongoing cost stretching into the future.

What does a 3d Nipple Tattoo look like? Image Gallery of before and after pictures.

Below is a small gallery of a few of the Nipple Tattoos I have completed. It’s important to note that all these images show Nipple Tattoos completed by me and are not stock images or other peoples work. All are taken in my studio with no filters or retouching.

I’m really grateful that so many of my clients are very happy to allow me to show their work in the hope that it may help others coming after them in the cancer journey.

You can view a more extensive gallery of images by clicking here.

My site also has a gallery of healed nipple tattoos. When choosing a Nipple Tattoo artist it’s really important to ask to see healed photos in order to assess pigment retention.

What are the benefits of a Nipple Tattoo?

A 3D Nipple Tattoo can help to restore your confidence and spirit after cancer. It may help you to… 

• Feel complete again when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror.
• Complete the final step on your cancer journey, allowing you to put it all behind you and move forward with your life.
• Draw the eye away from any scars you may have.
• Feel confident again, for example, in the gym changing rooms, on the beach, in bed.
• Feel back in touch with your body.
• Feel more like YOU again.
• Create the realistic appearance of a protruding nipple, even on completely flat skin. 
• Match your existing nipple in the case of unilateral mastectomy, to achieve symmetry again. 
• Feel comfortable in your skin again and reclaim your new reconstructed breasts. 
• Be free from dealing with awkward prosthetic stick-on nipples. 
• Put hospital visits and touch-ups behind you. No need to worry about recurring future hospital visits, faded patchy nipples or costly top-ups every couple of years, thus allowing you to put your cancer journey behind you and move forward with your life. 

In an interesting medical research paper titled “Does nipple-areolar tattooing matter in breast reconstruction? A cohort study using the BREAST-Q” patients reported, “that nipple-areolar tattooing significantly improves satisfaction with their nipple reconstruction.”

Read the medical research paper here 

The Procedure. – How Nipple Tattoos are created.

I fully appreciate that, if you have never had a tattoo before, the thought of starting the process can be daunting. 

I’m always happy to answer all your questions and chat through everything in your consultation but if you have any questions prior to that you can ask me anything you may want to know via hello {at} 3DNippleTattoos.co.uk or via facebook messenger or call 01484 680 104. 

You are welcome to pop into the studio to have a look around or communicate via email if you are coming from further afield. 

When you come to the studio for your appointment we will begin with a chat and a cup of tea to understand what you want to achieve. You are welcome to bring a friend for moral support who can accompany you for the procedure. 

Together we will decide the location of your nipples and mark the area on your breast. You will be able to see the location in the mirror and we can reposition until we are satisfied the location is right. 

We will then work together to mix the colours to be used based on our required outcome and your skin tone. If you have a photo of your original nipple, we can use that to mix a colour range that matches.

As in nature, each nipple is made from a wide range of tones and values which we will individually match to you. Small samples, allowed to dry on your skin, give an indication of the colour when healed. 

When you are happy with both the colour and location you will lie back on the comfy treatment table to begin the procedure. 

Creating your nipples takes very approximately 45 minutes for each nipple tattoo. When the nipples are complete you can look in the mirror to experience your new look. 

We will then go over the aftercare regime and answer any questions you may have. A breathable dressing will be applied and you will be given an aftercare pack with instructions to take home. 

I find that the best results can be obtained by following up with another appointment after 6 weeks {the perfecting session}. Therefore we will make a booking for this follow-up appointment before you leave. 

At this appointment, we will check how you have healed. We can then darken the nipple if required and redefine any details etc to make sure everything is as perfect as possible.

Everyone’s skin heals differently dependent on scarring and skin definition so this is an opportunity to reassess and refine the nipple. The cost of this second appointment is included in the cost of treatment. 

Equipment used for Permanent Nipple Tattoos

It’s important to know that safety and hygiene are paramount when creating a Nipple Tattoo.

Therefore all the equipment I use is fully disposable.

I use the Cheyenne Hawk Disposable Cartridge Needle System which means that each tattoo needle comes in an individually sealed and sterilised unit which is disposed of after each client. I can choose from an extensive range of needle sizes which helps with creating realism in the tattoo.

The set of ink colours that I use has been specially developed for use in Nipple and Areola Tattooing. It offers an extensive and natural range of colours to match every skin type.

It is manufactured in the US by an ink manufacturer of the highest quality and conforms to all safety and quality requirements. 

Frequently asked questions about Nipple Tattoos

Does it hurt to have a Nipple Tattoo?

Generally, most people having Nipple Tattoos after Breast Cancer and Mastectomy find the procedure relatively painless.

Sadly, often the nerves in the area have been disturbed by surgery meaning that sensitivity isn’t high. If you do find that there are areas with more sensitivity, then numbing cream can be used. 

How long do I need to wait after my Mastectomy to get a Nipple Tattoo?

I advise waiting at least six months after your last surgery before you get a Nipple Tattoo.

Sometimes surgeons give the go-ahead after 3 months but I wouldn’t advise this. I appreciate the wait can be frustrating when you just want to get on with it but it’s crucial to wait 6 months to ensure the best result possible. 

Waiting 6 months allows scar tissue in the area to heal and solidify. Fresh scar tissue is fragile and tattooing into it too early can result in it not healing properly and damaging the new scar.

In addition, this amount of time allows any inflammation and swelling in the breast to go down. This means that the reconstruction settles into its final position. Any earlier and you risk positioning the new Nipple Tattoo in the wrong place if the breast drops further. 

Are Nipple Tattoos safe?

Yes, Nipple Tattoos are as safe as any other minor medical procedure. 

All inks have to comply with strict EU regulations or they can’t be sold in the UK.

Inks are covered by the General Product Safety Directive in the EU.

I use top quality inks from a respected ink manufacturer in the US. Each bottle is EU Certified and CPNP {Cosmetic Product Notification Portal} Registered. The company website has a Material Data Safety Sheets for each ink. This gives a breakdown of the ingredients in the ink and any known toxicities. 

Under Toxicological Information they note Carcinogenicity: None per OSHA, IARC or NTP

Strict studio precautions and adhering to the same hygiene rules as hospitals minimise the risk of infections.

Aftercare. How long does it take to heal a Nipple Tattoo?

Nipple Tattoos heal quickly with fairly minimal aftercare requirements.

Any redness should subside in a day or so. Within approximately two weeks the Nipple Tattoos will be fully healed.

For the first three days, you will need to wash the Nipple Tattoos and apply Bepanthen Cream.

It’s really important that you avoid swimming or saunas for around 3 weeks to allow the Nipple Tattoos to heal fully.

If you have a Tattoo appointment we will go over the aftercare in detail and you will be given a sheet with all the information on it.

You can find more detail about the suggested aftercare regime here.

Pricing. What is the cost of a Nipple Tattoo?

I aim to be very transparent with my Nipple Tattoo Pricing so you don’t need to worry about surprise extra costs.

I charge £400 for one nipple and £500 for two and this covers two sessions. {The first session and a perfecting session 6 weeks later}.

You can pay for the work at each session, ie pay half at the first session and half at the second session. {ie £200 first session, £200 second session for 1 nipple: £250 first session, £250 second session for 2 nipples}

The 3D Nipples I create are permanent, so unlike the NHS or cosmetic ones they won’t fade away. Importantly this means that you won’t need to pay for top-ups in the future.

Secret garden – Private Tattoo Studio.

Secret Garden Private Tattoo Studio Holmfirth Yorkshire UK

After travelling through my own cancer journey. I fully understand how vulnerable you can feel and how traumatising medical settings can become. When I set up my studio space I wanted to create somewhere which would not feel medical, although operating to the highest hygiene standards. Secret Garden is warm, welcoming and private. As the name implies it opens onto a little garden which adds its own healing magic. 

The studio is fully licensed and checked by Kirklees Council to the highest hygiene standards. 

I am fully trained in the application of Universal Precautions to prevent cross-contamination and ensure client safety. I use the fully disposable Cheyenne Hawk needle system, which ensures new sterilised needles for each client.

I am located just out of the centre of Holmfirth, West Yorkshire HD91UA UK. Holmfirth is well placed for access from cities such as Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford and Leeds as well as areas such as Lincolnshire, The Midlands, Wales, Cheshire and Cumbria. We are near the M62 and can be easily reached from the M1. 

Holmfirth is the famously picturesque location for the long-running sitcom, “Last of the Summer Wine” and has a wide variety of great restaurants and character pubs and shops. Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Salts Mill in Saltaire are well worth a visit. Some clients, visiting from further afield stay and explore the area. I am always happy to advise on the local area if you are staying overnight. 

FREE Consultation

I am always happy to chat through any questions that you may have about Nipple Tattoos, either by phone or email. I also offer a Free no obligation consultation service. You can come into the studio or, if you live further away, we can do this via email or over the phone.

Just get in touch using the contact details below.

A Question I often get asked is, can I have a Nipple Tattoo after Nipple Reconstruction? The answer is a resounding yes.

Medical Tattooing of the newly reconstructed nipple will make the new nipple and areola complex appear much more natural and in keeping with your body. Tattooing can also match the reconstructed Nipple to the other breast in the case of a unilateral mastectomy. This really helps to improve symmetry after Breast Cancer, Mastectomy and Reconstruction.

Types of Nipple Reconstruction

There are several different methods by which a surgeon may reconstruct your new nipple. All involve creating a raised bump of skin to simulate the appearance of the nipple bud on the breast after the natural nipple has been lost to mastectomy surgery.

Skin Flap Method

This is a clever technique where the skin of the breast is folded up, origami-style, to create a little mound which becomes the nipple. This method has the highest chance of a successful outcome. 

Skin Graft Method

If there isn’t enough spare skin on the breast mound to reconstruct the nipple, a surgeon may take the skin from somewhere else. This is usually from the abdomen, thigh, buttocks or groin. This skin is then grafted and used to create the new nipple. This surgery can have a higher rate of complications than the skin flap method.

Nipple Graft, Autologous Graft or Nipple Sharing

If you have a large enough nipple on your unaffected breast, a surgeon may use part of it to graft onto the reconstructed breast to create a new nipple there. 

Recovery from Nipple Reconstruction Surgery.

One of the things my clients often note about their recovery is surprise at the size of the dressings. Often surgeons will protect the newly reconstructed nipple with a “doughnut” sponge type dressing. This has a hole in the middle for the new nipple. The bulky dressing can be tricky to hide under clothes but it keeps the new nipple safe whilst it’s healing. 

Clients also say that they were shocked by the size of the reconstructed nipple. Surgeons often compensate for any flattening of the nipple by making the reconstruction a little larger than it needs to be. As the nipple heals it will flatten and become the right size. However, this can be startling when you first look at the reconstructed nipple after the surgery.

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Getting a Nipple Tattoo After Nipple Reconstruction. How can it help?

The problem of flattening of a Nipple Reconstruction and how Nipple Tattooing can help

One of the common issues with Nipple Reconstruction is that the nipple tends to flatten and lose definition over time. The Nipple Reconstruction can pretty much disappear into the surrounding skin, or spread, making it look unrealistic. 

Nipple Tattooing can help with this. The same 3D tattoo techniques used on flat skin can be utilised. A little shade, highlight and definition on the reconstructed nipple can improve the appearance and make the nipple appear to “pop” again rather than blending into the surrounding areola area.

You can see some examples of this in the gallery below.

Bringing lifelike colour back into the Nipple Areola Complex with a tattoo

Even though the surgeon has recreated the shape of a new nipple, the skin colour is a different matter. The skin may have been grafted from a different area of the body so it’s often pale in appearance. The nipple itself is skin coloured rather than having the pink appearance of a natural nipple. Textures such as the little Montgomery glands are missing from the areola area.

Medical Nipple Tattooing can address all these issues. Tattooing shades of pink and texture into the reconstructed nipple brings it to life and gives a much more natural appearance.

If you have a natural nipple on your unaffected breast, colour and detail can be copied from there to bring the reconstructed nipple to life and make sure it matches the natural nipple as closely as possible. 

Issues with symmetry and Nipple Reconstruction

Sometimes, the Nipple Reconstruction may not be placed exactly symmetrically opposite the other nipple. It’s quite hard for surgeons to place the nipples precisely and sometimes one may be slightly higher than the other. Healing and other factors come into play.

In some cases, Medical Tattooing can be used to make the nipples appear more symmetrical by adjusting the areola heights to fool the eye. This does depend on each individual case as to if this is possible to achieve. 

Tattooing to hide scars around a reconstructed Nipple and Areola Complex

Surgery may result in white scars around the areola area depending on the techniques used for Mastectomy and reconstruction. In some cases, it may be possible to hide these scars by increasing the size of the areola a little to extend the edge and tattoo pigment into the scar area. This can be very effective in blending away the scar and giving a more natural appearance. 

Is it safe to use permanent ink with a Nipple Reconstruction?

Yes absolutely. All permanent inks undergo the same rigorous testing and European quality standards as semi-permanent ink. They are not allowed to be sold or imported into this country if they don’t comply.

I use the World Famous Inks Pink Ribbon Ink Set which is a high-quality permanent pigment collection specially developed for Nipple and Areola Tattooing. It is manufactured to the highest quality standards and is also Vegan. 

Tattooing Nipple Reconstructions is a specialised skill requiring experience and the right equipment. This is because the reconstructed Nipple is generally composed of scar tissue so is tougher to tattoo than normal skin as well as conversely being fragile and more easily damaged. The equipment used to apply permanent ink is of high quality and of the required power to tattoo into this kind of skin. 

In contrast, semi-permanent Tattoo equipment is lower powered [being designed for eyebrows and semi-permanent makeup] which means that operatives need to go over the area more times to try and implant the pigment. This can result in damage to the Nipple Reconstruction from overworking the skin as well as poor colour implantation and colour retention.

How long do I need to wait after Nipple Reconstruction before getting a Nipple Tattoo

I generally recommend that you wait a good six months before getting your reconstructed Nipple tattooed. The skin needs this time for the scar tissue to heal and stabilise. If you tattoo too soon you risk damaging the skin whilst its still healing.

Six months also gives the newly reconstructed nipple to settle into its final position as any inflammation goes down. That way, when we do the tattoo, everything is in the right place.

Gallery

The images below give a few before and after images of Nipple Tattoos I have created on ladies with a Nipple Reconstruction. All these images are of Nipple Tattoos done by myself in my studio and have not been retouched or filtered.

You can see more images in my Gallery here

Free Consultation

If you have had, or are awaiting a Nipple Reconstruction and want to chat through your options, I offer a FREE Consultation Service. This can either be in person or done by email or phone. Please just get in touch using the form below with any questions you may have. My Studio is based in the beautiful countryside just outside Holmfirth, West Yorkshire UK.

Thanks

Helen