{"id":103850,"date":"2019-10-20T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=103850"},"modified":"2022-03-24T16:35:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T20:35:41","slug":"more-than-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/more-than-art\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stacie Becker is not your typical tattoo artist. The 38-year-old sophomore studio art major<\/a>, who balances classes with her full-time job in a tattoo parlor, specializes in nipples.<\/p>\n

\u201c[My work] isn\u2019t about business for me. It\u2019s about giving women their dignity back.\u201d
\n\u2014Stacie Becker<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI never thought my decisions would lead to this,\u201d Becker says of her unlikely path. \u201cThe reward \u2026 I can\u2019t really put it into words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker\u2019s enthusiasm is not all her own. It\u2019s a reflection from her clients at Empower Tattoos in Altamonte Springs, where breast cancer survivors look in a mirror after maybe two hours under Becker\u2019s magical talent and see what they thought had been lost forever: completeness.<\/p>\n

From the most basic business standpoint, Becker is filling a need that previously had few real answers. Reconstructive surgeons can build breasts back up for women who have undergone mastectomies. They can even attempt an additional procedure to construct areolas, which means more cutting, folding and stitching. But that final step does not usually restore a realistic appearance long-term. It\u2019s like a flower stem without the petals, leaving patients with constant reminders of what has been lost.<\/p>\n

Or those surgeons can send patients to the tattoo parlor, where Becker uses less invasive instruments to create 3D tattoos that restore the shape and pigmentation of areolas. It\u2019s easier and cheaper than surgery and, plainly speaking, she makes nipples look as close as possible to the way they did before surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a woman gets her cherries back,\u201d as Becker puts it, \u201cit changes her quality of life immediately. I\u2019ve seen how much it means.\u201d<\/p>\n

What you hear in Becker\u2019s message isn\u2019t sales or marketing. She\u2019s only worked with the medical community since late 2018 and officially launched Empower in the spring of 2019, so even she<\/em> is still surprised to be discussing how tattoos impact the lives of breast cancer survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t at all what I once thought I was supposed to do,\u201d she says. Like a priceless piece of art, her purpose has been woven together across four winding decades.<\/p>\n

Finding Her Calling<\/h2>\n