Take a close look at the photo of Harry Styles that accompanies his interview with The Face and you can’t help notice all or part of five tattoos on his bare torso, a dusting of chest hair... and an extra pair of nipples.
Most fans of the 25-year-old singer already know that he has what medical professionals call “supernumerary nipples” or “polythelia.”
“It’s a thing,” Styles said, in an interview two years ago with Chelsea Handler.
He’s right, although polythelia is rare. “When the body develops, sometimes nipple-forming cells accidentally migrate down the chest below the normal nipple,” Dr. Joshua Zeichner told Allure in 2017. “Supernumerary nipples can develop anywhere on the chest, armpit, even belly or into the groin.”
With four nipples, Styles has something in common with cows. Cats typically have six to eight, dogs usually have eight to 10, and pigs have as many as 18.
Styles is certainly not embarrassed by his extra pair – and he is in good company. Rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg has a third nipple, as does British singer Lily Allen. Carrie Underwood revealed during her 2004 American Idol audition that she had her extra nipple surgically removed.
“It really just looked like a mole,” she recalled. “If I wore a two-piece bathing suit they would ask me what it was, and I said it was a birthmark because it was, but I kind of got a little self-conscious of it.”
Asked by a BBC Radio host to name his best trait, Styles replied: “I don't really know. It's weird to pick a best trait. Shall we go with the nipples thing?”