The video discusses the emotional and psychological impact of breast cancer and the importance of reconstructive surgery, particularly for the nipple area, post-mastectomy. It highlights how essential nipples are to human anatomy and self-identity, emphasizing the deficit in quality nipple restoration techniques compared to general breast reconstruction. The narrative also touches on the stigma surrounding discussing nipples and the emotional weight that scars carry for many individuals, using examples from the presenter's experiences in tattooing scar cover-ups for clients, illustrating the deep personal significance tattoos can hold.

The video also delves into the limitations of current medical-grade nipple tattoos, such as their semi-permanence and the potential for repeated procedures due to fading, leading to emotional distress and psychological scars. The presenter shares personal anecdotes, detailing both a professional journey and using expertise in tattooing to develop a more permanent and realistic solution for breast cancer survivors. This includes the establishment of a charity initiative to provide free, high-quality, 3D nipple tattoos, partnering with healthcare services to offer improved, patient-centered care.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. mastectomy [mæˈstɛktəmi] - (noun) - A surgical operation to remove a breast. - Synonyms: (surgery, breast removal, surgical resection)

A lady explained how she'd undergone a mastectomy due to breast cancer and received a semi permanent tattoo.

2. semi-permanent [ˈsɛmi ˈpɜrmənənt] - (adjective) - Lasting for an extended period but not permanently. - Synonyms: (temporary, transitory, impermanent)

A semi permanent tattoo is the most common standard of medical grade tattoos offered in hospitals.

3. aesthetic [ɛsˈθɛtɪk] - (adjective) - Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty. - Synonyms: (artistic, beautiful, tasteful)

Seeking a tattoo to cover a scar can be for deeper reasons than for aesthetic reasons.

4. traumatized [ˈtrɔməˌtaɪzd] - (adjective) - To be deeply upset or scarred by a shocking or distressing experience. - Synonyms: (distressed, shocked, scarred)

The experience left her traumatized.

5. paramedical [ˌpærəˈmɛdɪkəl] - (adjective) - Related to or denoting services and professions that supplement and support medical work. - Synonyms: (supplementary medical, ancillary health, supportive medical)

paramedical tattooing offers a skilled solution that the NHS simply cannot offer in house.

6. stigma [ˈstɪɡmə] - (noun) - A mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. - Synonyms: (shame, disgrace, dishonor)

There are still stigmas associated with tattooing.

7. inundated [ˈɪnəndeɪtɪd] - verb (past participle) - To be overwhelmed with a large amount or number of something. - Synonyms: (overwhelmed, flooded, engulfed)

And I was inundated. inundated by requests from people all over the country.

8. hyper-realistic [ˈhaɪ.pəˌrɪəˈlɪstɪk] - (adjective) - Extremely realistic in art or representation. - Synonyms: (lifelike, ultra-realistic, photographic)

In 2017 I traveled to San Antonio, Texas to learn the specialist craft of 3D nipple tattooing. A hyper realistic tattoo technique.

9. apprenticeship [əˈprɛn.tɪs.ʃɪp] - (noun) - A system for training a new generation of practitioners in a trade or profession. - Synonyms: (internship, traineeship, training)

Most traditional tattoo artists are required to do a two or three year apprenticeship before we tattoo healthy skin.

10. protruding [prəˈtruːdɪŋ] - (adjective) - Sticking out; projecting. - Synonyms: (jutting, projecting, extending)

A hyper realistic tattoo technique that uses artistry to create the illusion of a protruding three dimensional nipple.

Tattoo innovation - restoring nipples lost to cancer treatment - Lucy Thompson - TEDxNHS

Body parts tend to come in twos, don't they? Two eyes, two ears, two feet, two nipples. Two. How many folk here have two nipples? Strange question, right? But for many thousands of people, this question is a painful one, a painful reminder. They're a breast cancer survivor and a daily reminder of what cancer has taken away from them. They're simply grateful to be alive and choose not to complain.

Innovations in breast reconstructive surgery are outstanding. Skilled surgeons can recreate realistic breasts from different parts of the body, their bottom, stomach, and thighs. However, a breast isn't a breast without a nipple. It's simply incomplete. And from my work of helping over a thousand men and women, yes, 1% of men get breast cancer too. I can tell you we are woefully lagging behind as a country in high-quality nipple restoration.

People feel a little bit of shame when talking about nipples, don't they? The word nipple creates a bit of embarrassment. However, they are completely natural. Every mammal on the planet has one. Your nanny, your dad, the cat. Yet society has sexualized them over the years. Let's stop with the giggles, the humor. I urge you to think differently about these two small, fundamental parts of our anatomy, or lack thereof.

You might notice, and you'll have to trust me on this one. I have quite a few tattoos. It was very likely the first thing you noticed about me. I remember getting my first tattoo at the age of 17. Yes, underage and naughty. I'd been fascinated by the process. I realized this is something I wanted to do to become a tattoo artist.

A real job, I thought, hearing my dad's words in my head, insinuating an artist wasn't a real job. In my career, I've met some incredible clients, much like you meet patients in the NHS. Clients, like patients, have stories, traumas often opening up at their appointments, sharing stories of their past. A tattoo often means more than decorative artwork. They can be used to cover a painful reminder of the past.

Some years ago, I was asked to do a scar cover-up tattoo. Seeking a tattoo to cover a scar can be for deeper reasons than for aesthetic reasons. Scars often hold a lot of emotional weight. I remember my mentor telling me, never tattoo scars. The ink might not hold, and you could cause further damage to the skin. But here's the thing. Tattooing scars can be done. With the right tools, training, and care, tattooing scars can be done safely.

One particular client came to see me. Alma, not her real name. A school teacher from Leeds in her 30s, her arms were covered in scars from years of self-harming. As a teenager, a troubled past. She'd moved forward, but was left with a daily reminder of her pain. She always wore long sleeves, despite the 30-degree heat.

She requested a consultation out of hours so no one would see her. She asked for a tattoo of a phoenix to resemble her rising from the ashes of her past. I loved this idea. As I touched her arm, I could feel how delicate her skin was. I worked cautiously as I tattooed her as her skin started to swell. After five hours, we were done. To see the look in her eyes as she admired her new tattoo was beautiful. She looked in the mirror and burst into tears of joy. It was a beautiful moment.

She contacted me later, exclaiming she'd been able to wear short sleeves for the first time in her life. The transformation was magic and looking back, set in motion the early years of my life's work. A couple of years later, I was asked to do a nipple tattoo. At first, I was shocked. I'd never heard of one.

A lady explained how she'd undergone a mastectomy due to breast cancer and received a semi-permanent tattoo. In the hospital, the tattoo had faded and left her unable to look at her breast. So could I help? This sparked curiosity in me. A semi-permanent nipple tattoo. Most of us will be affected by breast cancer, be it personally or a loved one.

My aunty had breast cancer many years ago. They'd found a lump. Paget's disease was the initial diagnosis. A rare form of breast cancer. She was shocked when I asked her about her treatment and was a little bit dismissive at first. But she began to explain cautiously. She'd had the nipple removed and right there in the surgical theater, the surgeon had replaced it with a tattoo.

But she said something that made me stop. The experience left her traumatized. She felt intense pain to the point where she couldn't breathe. Blood was pouring down the side of her body. The tattoo scabbed up heavily, faded away within months. This left her unable to look at her reconstructed breast. That was 10 years previously.

That really hit home for me. The fact that someone couldn't even talk about their tattoo experience. That is not how it should be. For those of us with tattoos, and I have quite a few, I'm sure we can agree there is some level of discomfort during the process, but not to the point where we cannot breathe due to the pain.

This is not normal for people to feel pain on a reconstructed breast is rare and is usually down to poor technique, using inefficient equipment, or not having enough experience of tattooing to be able to read the skin to know when to stop. A semi-permanent tattoo is the most common standard of medical grade tattoos offered in hospitals. It's offered in hospitals after breast reconstruction throughout the UK and worldwide.

semi-permanent tattoos are used for facial makeup adornments that fade as fashions change. So why are breast cancer survivors offered a fading nipple tattoo? This is not a cosmetic procedure. Body anatomy shouldn't be semi-permanent. People are given a tattoo knowing that it will fade away in a few months. They are losing their nipple 2, 3, 4, 5 times as many times as the hospital will offer.

Returning for repeated top-ups, physically reopening old psychological scars damaging the fragile skin. A constant reminder of what cancer has taken away from them. Breast cancer nurses and surgeons do an incredible job going above and beyond saving people's lives. On top of their busy workloads, they are the ones performing these semi-permanent tattoos.

Clinicians are typically put through a two-day tattoo training course before performing semi-permanent tattoos over fragile scar tissue. To give a comparison, most traditional tattoo artists are required to do a two or three-year apprenticeship before we tattoo healthy skin. Never mind scar tissue, it's impossible to learn how to tattoo over two days.

Now I'm not for one second saying that nurses and surgeons need to add yet more training to their unbelievably heavy schedules. No, far from it. But I am asking, is there a better way? There are still stigmas associated with tattooing. You've possibly heard tattoos cause cancer. Tattoos contain lead. Welcome regulations in the EU in 2022 have banned carcinogenic ingredients including trace heavy metals and certain colorants in pigments.

And there are organizations working hard across the world to implement this. In my practice, I've co-created a pharmaceutical grade areola pigment set with no heavy metals. Knowing I am offering a safe solution to patients is paramount. In 2017 I traveled to San Antonio, Texas to learn the specialist craft of 3D nipple tattooing.

A hyper-realistic tattoo technique that uses artistry to create the illusion of a protruding three-dimensional nipple. The training changed my life. I'd found my sole purpose on my return. It transpired I was the first person in the UK to offer this specific technique. I felt responsible for raising awareness of this service. I started offering out free 3D nipple tattoos to anyone that needed them.

And I was inundated. inundated by requests from people all over the country. So in 2018, I launched the UK's first mastectomy tattoo charity, the Nipple Innovation Project, or NIP for short. Raising funds to offer a high-quality realistic solution for free to the breast cancer community. Collectively, we have supported over a thousand patients to date.

Patients don't realize they can seek an alternative option to hospital tattoos. I believe everyone should have a choice in what option they would like for their own body after cancer. I see faded areola tattoos weekly. It's devastating to hear people's desperation in feeling like they have no other option, reluctantly accepting their fate of never being able to feel normal again.

Is there another way? The goal with the NIFL Innovation Project was always to take over this service from the NHS. It's a bold goal. Clinicians are the soul to our NHS community. How on earth can we ask them to commit time to learning this specialist tattoo craft that takes years to master? And to be very clear, I'm not.

Through our charity, we offer a realistic solution. In 2023, the Nipple Innovation Project was the first mastectomy tattoo charity to partner with an NHS trust. A breakthrough for us, but most importantly, people in the breast cancer community throughout the whole of the country.

We've proudly partnered with Bradford Teaching Hospitals Trust to ensure that no one has to receive an overworked or faded narrow nipple tattoo again. And our goal is to relay this throughout the whole of the country. Our team of volunteers and I remain dedicated to educating the healthcare sector on the transformational benefits of artistic medical tattooing.

paramedical tattooing offers a skilled solution that the NHS simply cannot offer in-house. A cost-effective solution to many hospitals who have patients returning for repeated top-ups or have dozens of people on their waiting list. My auntie still felt traumatized by her previous experience and swore she'd never repeat the ordeal again.

One day, unexpectedly, she called into my studio as I was about to tattoo a client. My client invited her in to watch the process. At first, she was reluctant, but my client insisted. She said she didn't mind. My auntie commented at how relaxed my client was, who could talk calmly throughout.

This is exactly how a tattoo should be. There was no pain, no gasping for air, no discomfort whatsoever. She got up, looked in the mirror. A beautiful, unique, natural, realistic nipple was looking back at her. It was a beautiful moment, a special gift. I felt so proud that my artistic talent could offer her so much reassurance and joy.

With permission, I'd like to share with you a 3D nipple tattoo. A unique 3D nipple tattoo created and designed to last a lifetime. What a way to reclaim your body after cancer.

BREAST CANCER, TATTOOING, INNOVATION, HEALTH, MEDICINE, INSPIRATION, TEDX TALKS