Nipple-Areola Reconstruction
Usually the last step, once the chest has healed and the breast mound has settled into position. A nipple can be built surgically, by lifting and shaping small pieces of skin from the reconstructed breast itself; the areola is then added a few months later, most often with tattoo ink, occasionally with a skin graft taken from the groin or abdomen. Or the whole thing can be done by a tattoo artist who specializes in 3-D nipple tattooing — flat to the touch, but convincingly real to look at. Worth knowing too: for some people a nipple-sparing mastectomy, which keeps the original nipple and areola, is possible. Whether it is depends on the size and position of the cancer and on the shape of the breast.
Sources: National Cancer Institute; American Cancer Society.