November 5 - I Got Tattoos!

Once again: WARNING! Graphic content (sorry Tree)

Today was the day for the next step. For anyone who has a tattoo, you know the details, but since I've never really even wanted one, I will describe my experience. And no, this is not the design I went with, but I think it's pretty cool and way better than the prosthetics from my previous nipple post. Dr. Shulman said maybe as a second step...

Anyway, here's how it works: the doctor started with loosening up the scar by pinching it, then sketched on the skin with her infamous purple marker. She likes to eyeball it first, then measures - I think distance from my collar bone to the center of the breast (or scar in my case). Then she traced around the clear plastic tattoo color holder thingy because she said it was a pretty good average size circle for an aerola. Oooo-K.

Next: 15-20 tiny injections of local lidocaine into each breast, kind of like being attacked by a swarm of bumblebees who occasionally hit a nerve you can feel all the way into your armpit. I was wishing I had someone's hand to squeeze, but the doctors hands were kind of busy.

Finally: down to business. I couldn't look down and watch, so I have no idea what actually happened. She kept dipping the tattoo gun into different thimbles of color and basically drawing fake nipples on me. It mostly just felt like pressure and I could feel her artistic touch as she worked on the shading. Then she slapped on some antibiotic ointment, covered them with giant bandaids and said "See ya in two weeks!".

She actually was really chatty and fun this time around. She spent the full 45 minutes selling me on the idea of moving to California (where all my family is now) and going to medical school (which I've always wanted to do). She was pretty convincing... stay tuned.