A highly specialized tattooing technique allowed Rachel Samuels Rand to recognize her body again.
Rachel Samuels Rand was just 25 years old when she received news that would change her life forever: She had the BRCA gene mutation. “I was tested after my dad learned he had it, which was surprising because I don’t think most people know that men can carry it,” says Rand. The news meant there was up to an 85 percent chance that at some point, she would develop breast cancer.
“I started getting annual MRIs, and every time I would go in, I had such anxiety,” recalls Rand, “so I decided to get a preventative mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.” Rand was engaged to her now-husband, Brendan, and the two made a plan: They would get married in 2020, and Rand would get surgery in 2021. But then, of course, along came the pandemic. “We postponed our wedding because of Covid, but I didn’t want to wait yet another year to get the surgery. So I decided a worldwide pandemic would be a great time to get surgery.”
In June of 2020, Rand went in for surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “I was scared because I wasn’t allowed to have anyone at the hospital with me,” Rand recalls, “But the whole team made me feel so comfortable. I never felt alone.” Six months after her double mastectomy, Rand was back in the hospital for reconstructive surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery required doctors to entirely remove Rachel’s nipple and areola.
“I didn’t realize how much getting my nipples removed would affect me,” says Rand. “I thought I’d get over it. But when I woke up from surgery and I saw that they were missing, that changed my self-image. It was hard to look in the mirror and feel confident. When something is there your whole life, you don’t think about it. But when all of a sudden it’s gone, you really look at yourself differently.”
As Rand’s wedding approached, she thought about how she’d feel on the biggest day of her life. She knew husband loved her no matter what she looked like — he’d been with her through every stage of the process — but she wanted to be completely confident when she put on her wedding dress. “I knew nobody would see my nipples when I was walking down the aisle,” Rand says, “but I wanted to feel like I was all there. That was important to me.”
Before even learning she had the BRCA mutation, Rand had seen a TV show about artists who tattooed nipples on women who’d had mastectomies due to breast cancer. “I thought it was fascinating,” she says. After her surgery, she consulted with women on social media who’d gotten nipple tattoos and loved them; Rand decided she wanted to get tattooed before her wedding.
“I knew I wanted to get them done in a hospital setting,” says Rand, “because the artist would be working on skin that had been through surgery. I’d practically lived at MSK during Covid, so I already trusted everyone there.” So, a few months after her reconstructive surgery, Rand made an appointment to get nipple tattoos at MSK with Alicia Jones, a physician assistant with specialty training in these somewhat-unusual tattoos.
“I’d never gotten a tattoo before, so I had no idea what to expect,” remembers Rand. “But Alicia made it feel exciting.” Using photographs of Rand’s original nipples, Jones worked with Rand to determine what her tattoos would look like. “She asked me what I liked and didn’t like about my original nipples,” says Rand. “Then she asked me about size preferences, color, whether I wanted bumps on them or not … I wasn’t expecting that.”
Once the process was complete, Rand was shocked. “It was absolutely amazing,” she says. “They look so real. The color, the texture, the way they look 3D … I finally had back this part of my body I’d been missing for so long.”
After leaving her appointment, Rand couldn’t wait to share the results. “I immediately showed off my new nipples to all my girlfriends, because I was just so proud of them,” she laughs. “I like them even better than the old ones. And they gave me my self-esteem back.”
Now even more patients will have access to 3D nipple tattooing, thanks in large part to a new bill signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul which requires certain insurers to provide coverage for breast cancer survivors who want to be tattooed by a physician, as part of breast-reconstruction surgery. Babak Mehrara, MD, Chief of the Plastic and Reconstruction Service at MSK says of the bill: “ By addressing both the aesthetic and emotional aspects of recovery, these procedures help patients regain a sense of wholeness and confidence after their battle with breast cancer. The bill signed by Governor Hochul marks a significant milestone for breast cancer survivors in New York, ensuring that all patients have access to comprehensive care that fully supports their journey to recovery.”
In October of 2021, Rand got married in Long Island, New York; she still looks back at that day with tremendous satisfaction. “I got to walk down the aisle knowing in my heart that the entire surgery process was done, and I felt whole,” she says. “When you get a mastectomy, you don’t often feel like you have any control. This was something that gave me back some of that control — and now when I look in the mirror, I feel confident again.”
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Breast Implant Reconstruction Surgery
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (mskcc.org)
