Katy Watson, Nipple Tattoos and Their Michelangelo. BBC, Dec 20, 2013 (video).
bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25366749
Note:
(a) The English-language, but not the Chinese-language, report carried a video clip which is not helpful; it does not show how the taboo of nipple or areola is done, or its result.
(b) The "Michelangelo" is Vinnie Myers, whose offices are located at Finksburg, Maryland and New Orleans (none at UK).沃特森, 記者來鴻：美國的乳頭紋身師傅. BBC Chinese, Dec 30, 2013 www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/trad/fooc ... nipple_tatoos.shtml
, which is translated from
Katy Watson, Nipple Tattoos and Their Michelangelo. BBC, Dec 20, 2013 (video).
www.
Myers' website claims "3-D" tattoo of nipple and areola. But I can not find anywhere (including his website how it is done). (It may be his trade secrets.) It is unlikely 3-D, as it ordinarily means. At most, the tattoo, I think, creates a "mirage," or perspective, of 3-D. In addition, my observation is tattoo tends to be blackish, rather than orange (or whatever colors) of the real thing.
(c) Nipple and Areola Reconstruction. American Cancer Society, June 12, 2013 www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcanc ... le-and-areola-recon
("In some cases, doctors build up the areola and nipple area with donor skin that’s had the cells removed (see 'New methods of tissue support')")
There is no link for "New methods of tissue support," which in fact is a heading in the pull-down menu under "TOPICS":
Types of breast reconstruction
("Implants [with saline OR Silicon] often do not last a lifetime. You may need more surgery to remove and/or replace your implant later. In fact, up to half of implants used for breast reconstruction have to be removed, modified, or replaced in the first 10 years. You’re likely to need more surgery to remove or replace implants during your life. * * * [also] Scar tissue may form around the implant (capsular contracture), which can make the breast harden or change shape, so that it no longer looks or feels like it did just after surgery. Some of these problems can be fixed surgically, but others might not be reversible.
It may be hard for laypersons like you to understand the section under the heading "Types of breast reconstruction." It is new (2013; therefore unproven). Basically the method provides scaffolding (donor cells dead and cleansed, from a person other than the patient herself) so that only shell of intercellular tissue remains so that patient's own cells can grow into, like a hermit crab in a sense).
Of course, whatever reconstruction methods are used, if any, there will be no more feeling than ordinary skin. (Nipple and areola 乳暈 are one of erogenous zones.) Nerve endings are gone (during mastectomy, if the original nipples are removed.