Facts About Nipples!

1. Nipples can come in a lot of different shapes, sizes, and colors.

Dark, light, pink, brown, big, small. It’s all normal! If you want to see some examples of this glorious variety.

2. So can the areolae.
Areolae is plural for areola, which is the colored skin around your nipple. Areolae can be extremely light or very dark (or in between). They can also be as small as dimes or as wide as dinner plates. It’s all normal!

3. The little bumps on your areolae are called Areolar glands, or the Glands of Montgomery.

They’re so named for William Montgomery, who first described them in a scientific paper in 1837. Oh, and they’re totally normal and not something to worry about.

4. Something else that is totally normal: Pretty much everyone has at least some hair around their nipples.
Pluck or wax ‘em if you’re not a fan.

5. Nipple-gasms are a thing.

“Some people do experience orgasm from nipple stimulation alone,” Debby Herbenick said, PhD, author of The Coregasm Workout (Seal Press, 2015), “It’s rare, but it happens.”

6. Although for some people, the nipples aren’t even the most sensitive part of the breast.

Some studies have shown that the tops or sides or bottoms of the breast can be more sensitive for some people, Herbenick says.

7. Everyone has nipples because of how fetuses develop in the womb: Nipples show up before sex organs (like vaginas, ovaries, testicles, penises) do.

8. Nipple piercings can make your nipples bigger.
“It’s important for people to know — and especially people with smaller nipples — nipple piercing can result in permanent development in the area,” Angel says.

9. And nipple piercings can close up REALLY fast.
“My suggestion is that if you’ve pierced your nipples and you like them, you should never take the jewelry out unless you’re changing jewelry,” Angel says. “Even after being in for years, nipple piercings can close or shrink in moments.”

 

10. If you get your nipples pierced, you shouldn’t allow anyone to lick them until they’re fully healed.
Yes, that means waiting for months. But think about it: If you had an open wound on your leg, you wouldn’t let someone put their mouth on it, would you? It’s the same thing.

If you really want to feel a tongue against your nipples, Angel suggests cutting open a condom and using it as a barrier. Gotta keep the germs out!

11.They can span several inches.
The size of a woman’s nipples and areolas can be as wide as a half-dollar or smaller than a dime, and either way is totally normal, says Alyssa Dweck, M.D., ob-gyn in Westchester, New York and coauthor of V Is for Vagina. Gain weight or get pregnant, and they can balloon even bigger, she says.

12. They come in a range of colors.Pale pink, brick red, dark brown: Nipple pigment has to do with a woman’s ethnic background and the hue of the rest of her skin. Just as nipple size changes when you have a baby, so does nipple color, and that shift in shade is often permanent. “It’s the result of hormone surges during pregnancy,” says Dweck

13. They are capable of pleasure.
Nipples are an erogenous zone for many women, and a 2011 study from the Journal of Sexual Medicine backs this up. Researchers using MRI imaging found that when nipples are stimulated, a pleasure center inside the brain lights up the same way it lights up after stimulation of the clitoris and vagina.