Professional tattoo artist specializing in areola restoration
Calais Mumford tattoos areolas for women after mastectomy, walking them through mapping, color, numbing, and healing so the final step of reconstruction feels like theirs.
In this conversation
Calais Mumford is a professional tattoo artist and the owner of Sleekline Beauty, where she focuses on areola restoration, permanent makeup, fine line tattoos, and scar camouflage. She started in 2017 with microblading, then moved into machine work, and has nine years in the tattoo industry. A background in dermatology and skin shaped how she thinks about each procedure. Areola restoration caught her attention early, though she was not sure at first that it was something she could do.
When a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer around 2020, Calais took her first online course in areola restoration, and in 2023 she traveled to Texas for hands-on training and follow-up practice work. She is candid that tattooing is not regulated in many states and that certificates can take only days, while real comfort took her years of needles and practice. Her work now centers on mapping, mixing color to match skin tone, tattooing over scar tissue, and creating the illusion of dimension.
With Bree Allred, who is a breast cancer survivor herself, Calais walks through areola restoration after mastectomy and reconstruction from first consultation to long-term touch-ups. They cover the six-month wait after surgery and doctor approval, how color is chosen, what numbing and sensation are actually like, aftercare and healing time, insurance reimbursement, and how to review an artist's healed work before booking.
EP. 15 · Oct 22, 2026
Tattoo artist Calais Mumford explains 3D areola restoration after mastectomy: timing, mapping, color, pain, healing, touch-ups and insurance reimbursement.
Watch, listen, and read the episodeA few grounded takeaways from Calais’s conversation with Bree.
Calais starts with a consultation to discuss timing, placement, shape, and color. She asks clients to wait a minimum of six months after their most recent surgery and to get approval from their physician first.
Course length varies widely, and Calais notes her own certificate took days while her comfort took years of machine work. She encourages women to shop around and look closely at an artist's completed work before booking.
After mastectomy and reconstruction many women have reduced sensation in the area. Calais does an initial light pass, applies a topical numbing product, and says most clients then feel very little, though nerves occasionally surface in unexpected spots.
Scarred skin behaves differently, but working with it is part of the job. Whether a client has a surgically created nipple mound or completely flat skin, Calais uses shading and highlights to create the illusion of dimension.
Many women tell Calais they are fine either way, then react strongly afterward. Bree describes the same shift after her own restoration, saying her breast felt like hers again and her confidence changed.
Explore more guest features or hear the full episode with Calais Mumford.
