With a tattoo for medical purposes you can erase the scars left by the removal of the tumor and redesign, when necessary, the area of the areola and nipple. It is a sector not yet well regulated in Italy, but the Lazio region in recent days has taken an important step forward by approving a special fund contained in a law passed by the Regional Council: in addition to regulating the activities of tattoo artists and piercers, funding is provided (180 thousand euros a year for three years) for women who have undergone a mastectomy and who want to cover the signs.
The nipple-areola tattoo
Tattoo with a medical purpose, or corrective dermopigmentation,
it is not a novelty and does not differ much from the artistic one that many people do for purely aesthetic purposes. What changes, fundamentally, is the field of application because it is used to cover spots or lesions in those suffering from skin diseases, hide scars, restore a healthy and as normal appearance as possible to those who wear the traces left by interventions or pathologies, such as in the case of breast cancer. With the ultimate goal of recovering, even psychologically, the patient’s well-being and a good aesthetic outcome at the end of the treatment process. As reported by the Istituto Superiore di Sanit, today the pigmentation tattoo of the areola-nipple complex after mastectomy is the only one legally regulated. It is included in the Essential Levels of Assistance that the National Health Service (NHS) provides, among the services of specialist outpatient assistance. In 2019 the Ministry of Health issued the DGPRE circular 14138 – P, containing clarifications regarding this procedure, which provides that the service is performed exclusively by those who exercise a health profession, in an accredited or authorized clinic (relevant for the purposes of reimbursement by the NHS).
The example of Lazio
For patients who want to use these tattoos for medical purposes on a bureaucratic level, much remains to be done because it is an unregulated sector. Each Region establishes which services to provide autonomously for which they are not provided for free in a uniform manner on the national territory. And on this front that the Lazio experience offers an important progress: The aim is to alleviate the psychological distress of these women – Marta Leonori, regional councilor of Lazio among the promoters of the law told Time.news -. A resolution will soon be made by the Department of Health which governs access to funds and the methods of engaging tattoo artists. Accounts in hand, there is talk of 180 thousand euros a year for three years (2021-2023) for medical tattoos for women who have undergone mastectomy and 50 thousand euros a year for communication campaigns. The legislation Provisions relating to tattoo and piercing activities was approved on March 3rd. And the figures allocated in Lazio are based on a technical report that annually detects about 5,100 new diagnoses of breast cancer in the region, with 75 radical surgery (mastectomy) and 25 partial surgery (quadrantectomy) for every 1,000 diagnosed and a question of medical tattoo which is around 440 requests per year: The contribution of the Region, on the basis of these estimates, could therefore be over 340 euros per single beneficiary, Leonori continues.
Better result if an artist does it
Another decisive point concerns those authorized to make tattoos for medical purposes and also on this the new Lazio law (born from an idea of Giovanni Bartoloni, former spokesman for the president of the Regional Council Mauro Buschini, who died prematurely in October 2020 for Covid) overcomes the obstacle by foreseeing a collaboration between local ASL and tattoo artists: he suggested – Leonori recalls – to do something against the use of dangerous materials in tattoos. We have involved the National Tattoo Association and those of the category. We also asked for the participation of the Higher Institute of Health, which is working to find a unitary discipline. But all this is also possible thanks to the constant commitment of associations close to women with cancer. It is a precious opportunity for many women and men (because breast cancer, although very rarely, can also affect men) and allows patients to recover psychological well-being when they look in the mirror – comments Marzia Salgarello, associate professor of Plastic Surgery and head of the Plastic Surgery Department of the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation -. Normally we proceed as with artistic tattoos (same machines, needles and intradermal pigments) in a single session. The aesthetic result depends on the skill of those who perform it, as well as the ability to make the shape three-dimensional – concludes Salgarello -. For this reason it would be better if tattooists did it, with specific safety and hygiene certification to protect patients.
April 14, 2021 (change April 15, 2021 | 10:14)
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