Could You Describe Your Own Areolas?

---

Every body carries a story.

A Case for Documentation

Could you describe your own areolas?

Could you?

Without looking?

Could you describe their color, shape, size, or texture?

Most people can't.

I know because it was one of the first questions asked during my paramedical tattoo training. As we began learning how to create tattooed areolas after breast surgery,  the instructor asked us to describe our own.

The room became surprisingly quiet.

These were grown adults. Artists. People who had lived in their bodies for decades. Yet most of us struggled to find the words. It wasn't that we had never seen our bodies. We simply had never imagined we might need to remember this particular detail.

Why would we?

For most of our lives, our nipples and areolas are just part of us. They are neither remarkable nor mysterious. We don't study them. We don't memorize them. We don't imagine a day when someone might ask us to describe them. Most of us never imagine a day when we might lose them.

Then cancer or preventive surgery enters the conversation. And suddenly questions arise that many people never imagined they would need to answer.

What color were they? How large were they? Were they symmetrical? Did I like them? Would I want them exactly the same if I had the choice? Or would I choose something different?

If you're reading this before surgery, you may be wondering why I'm asking these questions at all.

You have bigger things to think about.

Treatment plans. Surgical decisions. Reconstruction options. Family conversations. Insurance paperwork. Getting through tomorrow.

Against that backdrop, wondering about nipples can feel almost ridiculous.

Some women have described feeling a pang of guilt for caring what they might look like when facing a potentially life-threatening diagnosis. And yet, I've spoken with many women who cared deeply. More than once I have been told that my studio felt like one of the few places where these feelings could be expressed openly and without judgment.

The truth is that our relationship with our bodies is deeply personal. What feels insignificant to one person may carry great meaning for another. What seems unimportant before

surgery may feel entirely different afterward.

And many people don't even know that areola restoration exists. In fact, many women first learn about it months or even years after their surgery.

They don't know that after healing, there may be options.

They don't know that color, shape, size, and placement can be recreated or reimagined.

They don't know that in New York, areola tattooing following mastectomy is now required to be covered by insurance.

Because they don't know those possibilities exist, they often don't think about documenting what exists now. Months or years later, some wish they had. Not because they wanted to preserve perfection. Not because they were focused on appearance. Because memory fades. Photographs create options.

If you are preparing for breast surgery, consider taking a few photographs before your procedure. Take pictures from the front and side. Take a few close-up photographs of your nipples and areolas. Store them somewhere private and secure.

You may never need them.

You may decide later that you want something completely different from what nature gave you.

Many people do.

But if one day you find yourself wondering, "What did they look like?" you'll have the answer.

And if you later choose areola restoration, you'll have something even more valuable.

A choice.

Not because you need to recreate what was there before. But because you'll have the opportunity to choose what comes next.

About Ava, Founder of Beauty & Grace Ink

Ava Schlesinger is a licensed clinical social worker and restorative tattoo artist based in Manhattan, New York.

Through Beauty & Grace Ink, she specializes in areola restoration, scar camouflage, fine-line tattooing, and permanent makeup in a private, trauma-informed studio.

Located in Manhattan, New York | Consultations available by appointment