Areola Tattoos Help Patients Feel ‘As Normal as Possible’ After Breast Cancer

CURE recently spoke with two breast cancer survivors — one, Diana Ivanov-Clements, now specializes in providing 3D areola tattoos and the other, Stephane Wachtel, received areola tattooing as part of her breast cancer journey.

Ivanov-Clements is a former celebrity makeup artist who worked on television shows such as the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and now runs the business All Day Baby to provide 3D areola tattooing.

“You go through so much trauma when you go through [a breast cancer journey],” she said. “And so you don't want to look at your body and be reminded of it every day, if you don't have to be. And so, I'm a painter and an artist and a makeup artist, and I have tattoos and love them, and so it all kind of like came together as the perfect thing to do paramedical tattooing.”

“I definitely wanted to feel as normal as possible after all my surgeries and stuff, and I felt like getting those are areola tattoos allowed me to have control over my body for once,” said Wachtel, who received her care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Transcript

Diana Ivanov-Clements: You go through so much trauma when you go through this. And so, you don't want to look at your body and be reminded of it every day if you don't have to be. And so, I'm a painter and an artist and a makeup artist, and I have tattoos and love them, and so it all kind of like came together as the perfect thing to do paramedical tattooing. So I do 3D areola tattoos for people who have had double mastectomies and weren't able to keep their areolas and scar camo, sometimes those work together in tandem, because there's scars involved with surgery. And then I do brows and lips too for some people whose color never really fully came back, or brows never really fully came back. And that's not just exclusive to people who've had cancer.

Stephanie Wachtel: I definitely wanted to feel as normal as possible after all my surgeries and stuff, and I felt like getting those are areola tattoos allowed me to have control over my body for once, and allow me to choose what I wanted to do and choosing that I wanted to put that on my body was something that I finally had control over. It was probably one of the most empowering moments.

Ivanov-Clements: It's so rewarding because it feels like my way of being able to give back. I don't go to a lot of meetings and things. I just have since tried to just keep it moving. I try not to sit in it, but when I do work with people, just the connection that we have, sometimes it takes forever to even get our appointments started, because when you're in this sisterhood together, and you've been through this thing together — it's such a lonely journey, even if you're surrounded by great doctors and great people and family and friends. Many of the people have been through exactly what you've been through, like truly understand, and so not only is it rewarding to be able to provide something for them to feel better, it's just rewarding to be able to just to be around people who just totally get it.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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