Heya guys! Possible answers here:
(i was the first to respond to this post ages ago, and then again a few years later, and now im back again, with updates!)
I ended up asking my gyn, who then referred my to my dermatologist, who then diagnosed the condition as Hyperkeratosis. This is an extreme sensitivity that results in severe drying & hardening of the skin - the discolored chunks that die & fall off. Google "hyperkeratosis of nipple" and compate pictures to your condition to see if its similar.
The derm referred me Amlactin, which is an exfoliating lotion. It was fine, it helped things not get worse, but wasn't really FIXING anything.
Unrelated to this, I decided to cut milk out of my diet to see if it might help w acne - as an unexpected side-effect, its actually clearing up the hyperkeratosis issues???
I'm not completely "healed", but it's been almost 3 months and there's some good improvement. I know an early commentor said they got this issue after having a kid, and wondered if it had to do with milk. I think they were on the money!
For some, it may be a different allergy, but milk/dairy is a good place to start. Also, for those concerned about breastfeeding- my derm said hyperkeratosis does not affect breastfeeding!
TL;DR - hyperkeratosis of nipple aggravated by dairy. Cut out dairy and use exfoliating lotion like Amlactin for some improvement.
This helped me so much. I researched hyperkerstosis & it said it can also be caused by rubbing or friction. This has been going on with both breast for as long as I can remember. I ALWAYS wear a bra & tight tank top which I'm thinking could be what caused this. The pictures looked a lot like what I have & it makes me feel better. I will certainly be trying to keep them moisturized and I will be taking my bra off when I am home! Again thanks so much for coming back to this site and reporting this, it helped so much.
Mine never reoccured ,thank god for that.