TOP DOCTORS
Mary Myers —
Local Woman Helps Breast Cancer Victims In Their
Quest For Normalcy
By MEL W RHODES
F
54
or the past 11 years, Mary Myers has been giving
women back their smiles. Myers is a Certified
Intradermal Technician, usually the last specialist breast
cancer victims see on their long road back to wholeness.
“I’m pretty much the very last phase,” Myers said.
“I’m the ‘cherry on top,’ basically, so once the women
have survived and been warriors and gone through heck
and back, I come in and soften the scars and finish off by
tattooing a 3D areola so they feel complete.”
In short, she does reconstructive camouflage tattooing
that helps women regain a sense of normalcy.
“I got into this field years ago because of my aunt who
had a horrible reconstruction after a double mastectomy,”
Myers said. “I went and got the training, in the begin-
ning, just so I could help camouflage and give her areolas.
Well, I fell in love with it and the industry and just kept
on adding certifications where I can do all kinds of perma-
nent cosmetics.”
Using flesh-tone pigment and shadowing techniques,
Myers tattoos areolae on reconstructed breasts, or on a
woman’s flat “palette” if she chooses not to have recon-
struction. In the case of single mastectomies, she works to
match color, etc., with the natural areola of the healthy
breast. The process usually takes place over the course of
three sessions. The finished product, Myers said, makes a
world of difference to her patients.
“You would think that it (an areola) wouldn’t be that
important, but it is,” Myers explained. “They’ve lost so
much, it’s such a psychological issue with women, once
they’ve gone through this. So even though they’ve had
the reconstruction, they still feel like blank palettes. That’s
why it’s so important to just go ahead and finish that off.
Then they feel complete. They can look in the mirror and
not think twice about it. Yes, it’s just a cosmetic thing, but
after you’ve been through [breast cancer surgery], to be
able to feel OK again is pretty awesome.”
Myers feels so strongly about her work that she donates
her time and skill if affordability becomes an issue.
“I donate probably 90 percent of my areolas,” she
said. “Most people, if their insurance pays for it, I can
work with them; but if they don’t have insurance and can’t
afford it, I donate those. A woman shouldn’t be deprived
of it just because of finances.”
She added that often insurance companies won’t pay
for the reconstructive
camouflage procedure
because they deem it to
be purely cosmetic.
Fall is peak season
for Myers’s breast cancer
work.
“In the fall it seems
to be all I do,” she
said. “I think probably
because Breast Cancer
Awareness Month is
coming up … maybe
that’s the reason. But
people start contact-
ing me usually around
August, and then I do it
pretty much through the
end of the year. I don’t
have a lot of call for it in
the springtime. I have no
idea why.”
In addition to her areola work, Myers offers pressure
point therapy, reflexology, cupping, aroma therapy, organ-
ic facial treatments, acne treatment, dermal planning, skin
tag/spot removal, PRP rejuvenation, fibroblast non-surgical
lifts, and IPL laser work.
“I do everything that I can, holistically, to make some-
one feel better,” she said.
Since January, Myers has maintained an office
at Kleven Chiropractic at 925 Santa Fe Dr. #111, in
Weatherford. Over the past decade she worked out of
Bridgeport and in Mineral Wells. Weatherford is home.
“We moved from Dallas in 1984, so I started out here
in fifth grade,” she said. “I grew up here and married the
‘enemy’ from Mineral Wells — it was a big deal in high
school! [Weatherford and Mineral Wells] had a big rivalry
back then. Yes, I ended up marrying a football player from
Mineral Wells. So, it was bad. And my grandparents had
a peach farm out here for years until it caught fire. So, I’ve
been a Weatherfordite since 1984. I couldn’t wait to get
back home.”
Myers may be contacted at 817-458-4554, or
at [email protected].