Six things you don't know about ta-tas

They're part of the reason my boyfriend will never never lust after his football buddies. They're my curse when jogging. They traumatized my brother once when my swimsuit top came undone on a family beach vacation (the Japanese tourists snapping pictures had a slightly different reaction). They're my breasts. My melons. Thing one and thing two. And although I thought I knew them pretty well, I was recently surprised to learn a few new titbits--sorry, tidbits--about the orbs below my neck.

*The left one’s bigger

No two breasts are exactly the same size, and it’s often the left breast that’s larger than the right. However, the difference is usually so slight, you'd never notice it. 

*Nipples come in innies and outies

While most women's nipples are outies, 3 out of every 100 nipples are innies, or inverted nipples, according to a 1999 study.

*Four million of them aren’t real.

 Nearly two million women in the United States have breast implants, with 250,000 going under the knife every year. The average age of a woman who gets fake breasts is 34, and 90 percent do it after they have children. And it’s not always a happy ending: In 2006, for every 12 women who got implants, one had them removed.

*Extra nipples aren’t uncommon.

It's not all that unusual for a woman (or a man) to have an extra nub. The nonfunctioning nipple is usually tinier and located lower on the body than the main pair, and it hardly ever develops or produces milk. It’s rumored that actor Mark Wahlberg had a third nipple—which was airbrushed out of his old Calvin Klein underwear ads.

 

*Ta-tas can come from either side of the family tree.

Wonder why your Mom’s busting out of her D-cup and you can get away with a training bra? It’s because you have an equal chance of getting your breasts from the maternal or paternal side of your family.

*We’re wearing the wrong bra size.

90 million women are dead wrong when it comes to their bosom. A survey conducted by Wacoal in 2005 found that eight out of ten American women wear the wrong size bra. Perhaps that’s why 59 percent of women say that their bras never seem to fit exactly right.