Tattoo artist creates 3D nipples

A Baltimore-area tattoo artist is making a name for himself inking 3D nipples onto the chests of breast cancer survivors.

For many women, Vinnie Myers’ tattoo shop — in a nondescript strip mall in Finksburg, Md. — is the very last stop of a “physically and emotionally taxing” journey.

The treatment process is finally over.

“I’m the last person they see in that big battle,” Myers told the Daily News. “They need nothing else. They beat it, they’re done.”

As one of his customers put it, the nipple and areola tattoos are “the icing on the cake.”

Lillie Shockney, a nurse at Baltimore’s John Hopkins Breast Center, went to Myers after she saw his work on one of her patients.

When he was done, “he turned my chair so I could see what I looked like in the mirror, and I burst into tears because they truly look real,” she told the Daily News.

Typically in the breast reconstruction process, a nurse or physician’s assistant does the dermal abrasion that creates the appearance of nipples and areolas.

When Shockney had it done about ten years ago, she had three colors to choose from: light tan, dark brown or salmon.

“I don’t think anyone’s breasts should be referred to as fish, but that was the most common color,” she said.

Shockney chose salmon, and the result “looked like two pancakes.”

While color options have since improved, it’s hard to match Myers’ decades of experience in color-matching and shading.

“We’ve spent our entire lives learning the craft of tattooing,” he said. “It’s kind of a no-brainer that a tattoo artist should be doing this, not a nurse.”

Myers started doing the tattoos in 2002, after a Baltimore doctor enlisted his help “because he realized he wasn’t good at tattooing.”

Word spread and more doctors reached out to Myers. Eventually, he stopped doing other tattoos and now works with breast-cancer patients full-time from his tattoo shop.

He does about 4 to 5 nipple and areola tattoos a day, 5 days a week.

“You’d be surprised at how tight breast-cancer circles are,” Myers said. “If something’s good, word gets out.”

Given Myers’ success, it’s a wonder tattoo artists weren’t brought into the process sooner.

“I just don’t know that anyone really put basic artistic principles into it,” Myers said. “I think plastic surgeons are concentrating on the breast reconstruction part and that’s what’s important for them. The important thing for me is to do a good-looking tattoo.”

The detail is what makes the difference, Shockney said.

“I know that I am whole again, and that the realistic image of the nipple and areola can transform a woman,” she said.

“My husband says I walk taller.”