From covering mastectomy scars to sculpting 3D nipples, Amy Black says there’s more to a career as a tattoo artist than drawing dragons and love hearts

It was a cold call in 2011 from a woman who had undergone a single mastectomy for breast cancer that took Amy Black’s tattoo career in a new direction.

The woman was looking for a tattoo artist to recreate her nipple and areola removed in surgery. “What she was asking for was just a two-inch circle, but the healing properties that two-inch circle had were so much bigger than that,” Black says, speaking from her tattoo shop in Virginia, in the US.

Women who have had breast cancer surgery have told her about a daily experience, coined “the mastectomy drive-by”: walking past the bathroom mirror in the morning and being confronted with the scars. “It’s a constant reminder of the cancer, but they’ve told me the tattooing helps to cure that,” she says.



With 10 years’ tattooing experience under her belt, Black said yes to the cold-caller, and has been using her skills to create the illusion of natural nipples and areola textures ever since.



“That first woman who came in was amazing, she was so supportive and after we finished the tattoo she was so happy and wanted to share it with the world, to promote to other cancer survivors that tattooing is an option,” she says.



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Back in 2011 there weren’t many people offering nipple tattoos, and while hospitals and surgeons incorporate tattooing and nipple re-pigmentation into the reconstructive surgery, they tend to offer something more rudimentary such as two different block-colour circles. Today, Black receives lots of referrals from plastic surgeons across the US and has had clients travel from as far away as Sydney, Australia.



“The women you meet in my career are so courageous; to know that they’ve gone through dealing with breast cancer, and then find a tattoo artist having never stepped foot into a tattoo shop before.” The youngest client she has had was around 21, the oldest more than 70. Meeting these women is one of Black’s favourite aspects of the job.



But it’s an expensive business. Black charges around $250 (£174) per breast, with each taking 30-45 minutes, but the market rate can be as much as $800. She officially launched The Pink Ink Fund last year, a charity that gives financial aid to people all over the world who need help with their mastectomy tattoos.

Black fell in love with the human body when studying fine art oil painting in college. There she did anatomy and figure drawing, a passion that would later transition into inking real flesh. But first she got a tattoo of her own, a tiny Korean proverb on her hip that can be loosely interpreted as “never give up”. Black’s personal tattoo collection grew from there. After doing an apprenticeship in the 1990s and qualifying in 2000, she went on to run her own studio in 2005.

She says she has seen younger and younger women who have had breast cancer come to her for help, and many are looking for creative ways to cover their scars and incision lines, rather than opting for 3D nipple tattoos.



“The younger generation of survivors are sharing their stories on social media more and posting pictures of their decorative tattoos – so it becomes an option for other people,” Black says. “They want something pretty to look at rather than the reminder of the cancer they went through.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Not all of Black’s clients want nipple tattoos, some want something pretty to look at, like this cherry blossom design. Photograph: Amy Black

One of Black’s favourites is the first mastectomy tattoo she did for a woman who decided not to get reconstruction. She was a nurse, and chose to have a grapevine tattooed over her surgery scars in a pattern that didn’t necessarily cover the scars.

“It was designed to be a statement of winning her battle over cancer and accepting the scars that that chapter of her life had given her,” she says. “The grapevine symbolised renewal, since every year a grapevine renews itself and sprouts new life and beautiful leaves and fruit from a hardy vine.”



A lot of thought and planning needs to go into the designs, especially with Black’s toughest cases. “One client came to me with a lot of asymmetry and very deep scarring – we did a beautiful cherry blossom design, scattered asymmetrically to take the eye away from how unevenly her implants had settled.”



“It’s wonderful to be able to help others and use art to do whatever it is they come to you with a request for. Sometimes it is to help them get through tough times, or celebrate things, like the birth of a child or a wedding anniversary,” she says. “Being able to make a living out of it is so rare. Very few of my college friends went on to be artists, most had to switch careers.”



A strong work ethic, being conscientious with your craft and open to creative criticism are all the makings of a successful tattoo artist, according to Black. She throws herself into everything from botanical themes to Tibetan tattoos, emulating artists from Klimt to Michelangelo. She says it is crucial to have the ability and enthusiasm to adapt to new styles and take on all sorts of briefs.

“One of the more interesting tattoos I got to do recently was covering a woman’s whole scalp. She had lost her hair due to alopecia and it was her first tattoo ever,” Black says. “We did a decorative vine pattern with a blue lotus on the back.” Now the woman rarely wears the wig she had used for years, and goes about town showing her tattooed head.



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