AFTER a decade of practising the art of tattooing, Ami Aqui, the owner and founder of Lotus Box Tattoo Studio, aims to offer more sentimental inkings, such as nipple reconstruction tattoos, to provide women with a sense of normalcy and help them reclaim their identity following a traumatic procedure.
In her quest, she has decided to offer the first few mastectomy patients these tattoos for free.
“I toyed with branching off into nipple and areola reconstruction for years. I did hesitate because my job can be very emotional and truthfully, a few years ago it would have been harder on me. But I feel more rooted in my decision now and I want to offer this because all women deserve to feel as much of themselves as possible, even more so after such an experience,” she shared in an interview with Express Business.
Asked what it would take to offer nipple reconstruction tattoos, she explained, “Creating a nipple and areola that looks as natural as possible on the wearer requires a different technique to my usual style of fine-lined black work. The selection of colour is also very important to match the client’s pigmentation. But fine detailing for an even more realistic look and build is my thing; I love detail work and it’s the little things that make the big differences in tattooing.”
As for absorbing the cost of these tattoos, she said the cost of running the business is “time and energy”.
“It takes giving 100% to every client. Their experience is everything to me and I want to bring their visual concepts to life. To create a connection with their piece while giving them the space and time to feel comfortable and heard.”
Nipple reconstruction tattoos can still be considered taboo to some, but Aqui said she doesn’t “take on taboo” or shy away from it.
“Why not offer an additional service that is already in line with what I’m doing? I love what I do and my work seems to be received well, so if I’m blessed with being able to do so then why not?”
Though this offering will uplift women, Aqui said she doesn’t see herself as an uplifter.
“It’s a positive energy exchange. Honestly, an act of love. I think we both leave feeling uplifted. But that’s what love does right?”
Aqui has not been able to offer nipple reconstruction to date, but she has done pieces that left her clients with a glimmer of connection in their eyes after seeing their tattoos.
“You know that (author LR) Knost quote, ‘Life is amazing. And then it’s awful… And it’s all breathtakingly beautiful.’ I deal with all of the above. Love, loss, success, failure, heartwarming and heartbreaking. There is something about seeing my clients look at their new bodies afterward. There’s a moment when they stare at their new piece and I can see I glimmer in their eyes of connection. That is usually when my eyes are filling with gratitude and I casually pretend I’m doing something else other than crying.”
She mentioned a client she worked with a few years ago when she was still green in the business which made her realise even more that people battle things quietly and that they can be powerhouses.
“There was one client that came in years ago. I was just a few years into tattooing. The quietest client I’ve had to date. Her presence was gentle. We tattooed ‘She believed she could…’ The sentence was incomplete with intention. She looked at it, smiled softly to herself, and left. Weeks, maybe months later, she returned, and though still quiet, her energy was brighter. We tattooed ‘so she did.’ I don’t know what she has done and I didn’t need to. But it moved me. She found the courage to do whatever she had to do and she stuck to the commitment and promise to herself that she would.”
She added that it’s an honour to contribute to lives in the tiniest of ways whether it’s just a word of a reminder tattooed to find their strength, their voice, or their peace.
Aqui got into tattooing between the ages of 15 and 16 when her hands “creatively dug into different avenues”.
Touching on why she started her business and how she came up with the name, she said, “I wanted to have an umbrella name, to put all the things I loved doing into a ‘box’; so, the box happened. The lotus at that time became significant in my life because I had just recovered from major spinal surgery and was planning my first tattoo – a lotus, the flower symbolising rising from a dark place into beauty and rebirth. So that’s how ‘The Lotus Box’ came about. Only in my wildest dreams would I have thought it would grow to The Lotus Box Tattoo Studio.”
Aqui asked that mastectomy patients interested in having nipple reconstruction tattoos reach out to her at thelotusboxbooking@gmail.com.
