Oh huh! Ok, so I did include areolas AND the nipple in my mind. I don't like anything in the whole area touched, but the nipple (along with its aerial) is the most sensitive.

Before my top surgery I could also not tolerate my chest being touched at all. I had been binding since I was 12~13 and usually 24/7 and so tight that my ribs were kind of malformed. So the idea of being touched terrified me and I thought I could never deal with it even after surgery.
But it did changed after the surgery. Once my friend pinched my right nipple playfully and it actually felt nice.
I am not saying your relationship with your body will change in the same way. It is definitely your own decision to have grafts or not. But it's just that things might not be as bad as we have always thought.

I too have been playing around with the idea of not having nipples and getting a large chest tattoo.  One reason why is because the sugeon that I found to do my surgery has only done it on 3 other guys so I am afraid that the nipple placement might be botched. The second reason is because she wants to do the one-stage nipple graft and I feel my nipples are too large for that. I already have a ton of tattoos so covering my chest with them is no big deal to me.

I think it's safe to say that your relationship to your chest changes. Mine definitely has! It's not that I have erotic sensation, let's just say I don't think my brain is that smart. But I do like it and like looking at my chest. It's not something I did any of before surgery. And I didn't like my looks in a mirror.

--Jay

I've heard of guys going without and actually getting tattoos of nipples. Maybe that would be enough for your needs. I think if I were an FTM, I think I would either just go without or get the tattoos. Nipples on men always seemed odd to me. Maybe I've seen enough comics and drawings of men where they don't bother to draw them and it seems fine.