Local artist talks about beauty techniques for breast cancer survivors
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Nipple tattooing after mastectomy
Lizeth Alvarado joined FOX 5's Ayesha Khan to talk about her work with breast cancer survivors following mastectomies. As the principal artist and owner of Epic Beauty, RX, Alvarado specializes in beauty after cancer and nipple tattooing.
BETHESDA, Md. - FOX 5 continues to recognize October as breast cancer awareness month.
For many women, discovering the cancer can lead to not only harsh treatments but also losing one or both breasts.
Our own Ayesha Khan has been sharing her personal experience with the disease and has openly talked about her changing look proceeding 16 rounds of chemotherapy and a single mastectomy of the right breast.
Ayesha is due for a breast reconstruction in December followed by a nipple tattoo that she plans to get a few months after recovery.
READ MORE: Walking the runway for a cure
On Saturday morning, she was joined by principal artist, educator and owner of Epic Beauty, Lizeth Alvarado of Northern Virginia to talk about the nipple tattooing process in addition to various techniques available to women seeking beauty care after breast cancer.
Alvarado shared insight into why nipple tattooing is an appealing procedure for women who have undergone mastectomies.
"Nipple tattooing has a lot to do with restoring the breast after mastectomy or other breast reconstructive surgeries. A lot of times, you know, women will lose areola and nipple area. And they will actually have like blank breasts when the doctor cannot save the nipple and areola," explained Alvarado. "So when they come in to get nipple tattooing, I basically do some mapping, which recreates the areola and repigments the skin."
Alvarado says woman typically get the procedure done six months after a mastectomy, and a doctor's approval is required.
Once the procedure begins, Alvarado says it is relatively painless.
"Typically women will not feel anything because there's been so much reconstruction, and it depends on the type of reconstructive surgery that they’ve had, they may not have any sensation in the area. However, if they do have sense, I do use a numbing cream."
In addition to nipple tattooing Alvarado also offers other cosmetic procedures for cancer survivors. They include offering eyelash extensions that can be kept on longer periods, and scalp micro pigmentation, a procedure that recreates the follicles on the scalp, and helps fill in gaps left in hair after chemotherapy.
To learn more about Alvarado's work, visit Epic Beauty Rx's website.