This Esthetician Gives Breast Cancer Survivors Free Areola Tattoos

free tattoos for cancer survivors
Credit: Flickr/Marco Verch

There’s no question that breast cancer sucks. It’s quite prevalent, too: It’s the most common cancer in women both in the developed and less developed world, according to the World Health Organization, accounting for over 500,000 female deaths in 2011. And in some cases, the treatment of breast cancer—or the prevention of it—requires a mastectomy, or surgical removal of one or both breasts. Increasingly, women are opting for post-op tattoos to celebrate their bodies or to signify their journeys. In an effort to help survivors, Gloria Juarez, owner of You Glo Med Spa in Houston, offers free areola tattoos to those who have battled the disease. 

Here’s why areola tattoos are tough to pull off…

Let us back up for a second. Areola tattoos tend to be trickier to design than traditional ones since artists don’t go as deep into the skin and pull lines more slowly. Because it’s scar tissue and therefore has varying thicknesses in just a few centimeters of area, extra caution is required—which Juarez flawlessly executes.  

The esthetician, who holds certifications in permanent makeup, microblading, and paramedical tattooing, felt it was her duty to provide areola tattoos au gratis to women who might otherwise have very limited options. So one day per month, her doors are open and virtual price tags are removed for the service, in which she uses several different colored inks to get a textured, 3D-like effect for the redrawn areolas. 

…And why this spa owner offers them for free

Like any other tattoo, her treatments aren’t always one and done. Sometimes Juarez’s pieces require touch-ups, so she encourages her clients to come back to get their tattoos fixed if necessary. If the areola tattoos were free, the touch ups are devoid of cost, too. “They deserve this,” she told the Houston Chronicle . “When you’re blessed, you should bless others. You put out in the universe what you want to get back from it.”

If you liked our post This Esthetician Gives Breast Cancer Survivors Free Areola Tattoos, make sure to check out our story How Tattoos Can Help With Healing After a Mastectomy.

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