Restored by Ink founder Monica Hollenbeck rediscovered herself after her breast cancer diagnosis through paramedical tattoos.
“Before the tattoos, I used to look in the mirror and see cancer every day, because all I saw was scars,” she said. “After the tattoos, I realized that my eyes weren’t even looking for anything anymore.”
Hollenbeck has been a paramedical tattoo artist in San Luis Obispo County for three years. Her business, Restored by Ink, offers 3D nipple and areola tattooing, scalp micropigmentation, and stretch mark and scar camouflaging in Templeton and downtown SLO.
Paramedical tattooing emerged as a specialized field in the 1980s. Initially, it focused on helping people with alopecia-related hair loss by creating the appearance of eyebrows.
“Over time it evolved to include a broader range of applications such as camouflaging scars, burns, stretch marks, restoration of nipples after breast surgery, alopecia, hyperpigmentation, and other skin conditions,” Hollenbeck said.
Being a paramedical tattoo artist is a specialized process that required Hollenbeck to get trained and certified in Texas. She followed that with using her own body—marked by dark scars from feet surgery and white sunspots—as a canvas for practice.
“I went to Florida then got trained on scar camouflaging, specifically Brazilian scar camouflaging,” she said. “In training, the first client that was supposed to show up to be my model did not show up. So, I said, ‘Hey, I have a lot of scars, so let’s work on them.'”
Unlike regular tattoo artistry, paramedical tattooing requires its practitioners to learn how to tattoo scar tissue,
not skin. Depending on the time it takes to map the area of tattooing, the size of the tattoo, its color, and its location, Hollenbeck said that a session takes around an hour and a half. Follow-up sessions to touch up the tattoos are common.
Hollenbeck now works with a general surgeon and a plastic surgeon. 3D nipple and areola tattoos are Restored by Ink’s most popular service, and her 41 clients include both men and women.
One of them is Paso Robles resident Courtney Mullikin. She first heard about Restored by Ink from her general surgeon who performed a lumpectomy and a mastectomy on her as part of breast cancer treatment.
Mullikin told New Times that choosing to get a paramedical tattoo felt like she gave back something to herself that she had lost.
“When you have a mastectomy, you lose a part of your body. When I sat up after she did the tattoo, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I did not have a nipple 20 minutes ago, and now I have one,'” she said. “It completely changes the way that you look at yourself, because for however long until you do this, you just see cancer, whether you’re in remission or not.”
Hollenbeck herself got introduced 3D nipple tattoos through a fellow participant at the Cancer Support Community in Templeton. Now, she leads a group for young survivors at the same community. They meet on the first Tuesday of every month at 1051 Las Tablas Road.
According to Hollenbeck, though 1 in 8 people in America will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetimes, the choice of getting these tattoos isn’t always clear to patients.
There are some obstacles that prevent this field of work from being widely known. Paramedical tattoo artists must grapple with the inability to run ads that show the breadth of their work because of the graphic nature of the pictures.
“Unfortunately, in America, you cannot talk about nipples, show nipples, even though we all have them, and when we don’t have them, it’s a problem,” Hollenbeck said with a laugh.
Still, the demand for paramedical tattoos has been growing thanks to social media. Call (805) 801-9993 for a free consultation. Visit restoredbyink.com for more information or email monica@restoredbyink.com for appointments.
“I get more excited than the patient because I know what a difference it’s going to make afterwards,” Hollenbeck said. “But there’s no better feeling of watching a woman go to the mirror and see herself complete again.” Δ
Fast fact
Pismo Beach icon Bob Pringle, also known as “Pismo Bob” is marking his retirement with an everything-must-go sale at Pismo Garden Art on 940 Price St. The retirement sale will kick off on July 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pringle will provide free popcorn, take photos, and sign autographs to the first 100 customers on each day of the sale. For more information, call (805) 773-6245. Δ
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 10-20, 2025.