My First Tattoo…

I’ve been deliberating since my mastectomy 3 years ago whether to have a nipple tattoo.  Not having one hasn’t bothered me in the slightest but the thought of maybe having one has never left my mind.  I don’t have any tattoos and never planned to have any.  In fact, I’d always said that I would never have one.

However, I’ve been following several cosmetic artists on social media and the 3D areola tattoos have looked AMAZING!  They just look so realistic.

The back and forth of having one and not having one has been on-going so in January I decided that the only way to close these thoughts down would be to go ahead and have one.

I’d been following Vicky Martin for ages on Instagram – she’s the queen of areola tattoos.  She’s developed her own style and way of doing them and you just wouldn’t know that they were tattoos.  She’s also been brilliant for the breast cancer community in her campaigning for photos of cancer related breasts to be shown on public media.  Boobs affected by breast cancer should be treated as being within the medical category not the sexual category.

So, once I’d decided that Vicky’s method (VMM) was the one I wanted to go with, I looked up people who had been trained in her method.  That’s when I came across Katie in Huddersfield.  She’s a cosmetic tattoo artist who does eyebrows, eyeliner, and lips (yeah – seriously – who knew that was even a thing?).  She also does VMM areola tattoos.  She’s also only about 40 minutes away from me.

I decided to contact Katie, and we lined up a video call (one of the benefits of covid).  She completely put me at ease which helped massively in my decision-making.  She explained the process fully, let me ask any questions that I had and said she’d send out a patch test.  No more deliberating – an appointment was made.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I arrived or how long it would take.  Katie was professional and very easy to get along with.  I felt totally relaxed and comfortable in her hands.

Before we started, she took some photographs and she spent ages measuring up.  This was a little weird but having gone through breast cancer and as a result, having loads of people prod and poke, I took it in my stride.  Once measured, Katie then spent a lot of time colour-matching.  As a perfectionist she wanted to get the match absolutely right.

Measuring and colour matching completed, she was ready to start on the tattoo.  She numbed the area first but to be honest, I have no feeling there so I couldn’t feel a thing at all.  After a couple of hours of her tattooing, my first session was over and done with.  I was given some “Hustle Butter” which is like a tattoo moisturiser/Vaseline type cream for application after a week when the protective plaster had been removed.

My second appointment was just over 4 weeks since the first session.  Normally it’s left a bit longer, but I was going away so I wanted to ensure it was healing OK.  Katie said it would be OK as areola tattoos are slightly different in terms of their healing.

The tattoo had healed well but the colour was lighter than expected.  The pigment hadn’t taken as expected.  It was back to the colour matching again although this time, a darker shade was used. Katie was an absolute perfectionist in ensuring that it looked realistic – the shading, highlighting, and colouring had to be absolutely spot on.  She went back over it several times until she was happy. 

The titivating (ha!) was definitely worth it, when I saw it, I was thrilled.  It looked so realistic.  The two moles that had been on the skin that had been transplanted from my back had been incorporated so even gave it more of a proper 3D effect. 

I didn’t think that it would make such a difference, but it absolutely does.  When I say it makes a difference, I don’t mean in terms of mental health or how I feel about my mastectomy, but it just looks great and it finishes off the reconstruction.  There’s still scar tissue and redness (although that’s continually fading) where the nipple was removed and Katie says that this can also be tattooed over to further mask it…… now, whether I actually get that done is another matter! 

I’m glad that I’ve had it done and I no longer have those “should I or shouldn’t I” thoughts. There is one thing though…… I’m not looking forward to the next time someone asks “do you have any tattoos?”……..