![]() After surgery, some patients have very little sensation in their breast area while others are hypersensitive, Giles said. For example, some people were using iron oxide-based inks that fade quickly rather than permanent tattoo inks, Sauler said.Īnd there are many factors to keep in mind when providing tattoos for a clientele whose bodies have endured so much: Radiation, scarring and the type of reconstruction procedure, for instance, can all affect the tattooing and healing processes, Sauler said. "It was being done so widely, and it was being done so poorly that a lot of patients were suffering from it," she said. She quickly learned that, as Giles mentioned, the surgeons providing nipple tattoos in medical settings were not generally up to the task. ![]() Budow felt a light pinching sensation in one breast and had no pain in the other. Giles started with a test spot on Budow to see what level of sensation she had in the breast and how her skin took the ink. ![]() Seen in the background is fake skin that physician assistants use to practice their tattoo skills. Before getting a nipple tattoo, patients can try out temporary tattoos in different sizes and colors. In the weeks before the appointment, Budow tried out different shapes, sizes and colors of nipples on her skin using temporary tattoos. From there, Giles mixed various ink shades together and tested them on Budow’s skin. The first step in the office was for Giles to draw stencils on Budow’s breasts in the place and size that Budow preferred. Courtesy Memorial Sloan Ketteringīudow, a longtime New Yorker, moved to Boca Raton, Florida, during the pandemic and traveled back to the city for her appointment. “That’s really what’s so exciting about this being that last part - it’s the part that I have control over.” Caitlin Giles, a physician assistant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, uses a mix of ink colors to create a tattoo for each patient's skin tone. I look at this tattoo like a badge of honor,” she told TODAY. “This is me being done, and I can I say I’m a survivor, but now, the scar is not a scar. The tattoo process gives survivors back some control over their bodiesįor Budow, the tattoo procedure is the final step of a long journey - and it's a step that allows her to take back some ownership of a body that's had many choices made for it recently. From there, the program has grown exponentially: In the first year it existed at Sloan Kettering, the team did about 40 tattoos, Giles said. If patients wanted to pursue more realistic nipple tattoos, the hospital would refer them out to medical tattoo specialists, like Vinnie Myers or Mandy Sauler.īut in 2017, a group of about five physician assistants at the hospital - including Giles - took it upon themselves to undergo training with Sauler and become licensed tattoo artists to provide this service themselves. "And to be honest, we didn't encourage patients to do it because the results were pretty suboptimal." ![]() That's why "a very small number of patients really completed that," Giles said. ![]() "We had probably five colors that you could choose from it was like pink or brown." Physician assistant Caitlin Giles uses stencils to draw an outline for Aileen Budow's areola and nipple tattoos. We had a completely different machine, and we didn't have the capability to do details," she said. ![]()
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