We’ve all seen a woman at some point in our life who has permanent eyebrows, eyeliner, lip liner, blush or even lipstick. Aside from wondering how excruciatingly painful that must have been to get done, we may have also thought for a split second how great it would be to wake up with makeup already on, right? Wrong. Permanent makeup is tattooed on, which means a few things, for those of you who don’t have tattoos, so I will point out the obvious for you. It’s a painful process with needles (plural) injecting ink at a rapid speed. Removing a tattoo is even more painful and consists of a needle to numb the area, lasers to burn it off and scabbed skin left to heal, possibly with a scar.
Tattoo ink pigments change color when exposed to the sun, and over time the colors change, fade and bleed (look smeared). Since your face will always see the sun, you can’t control that change process with sunscreen, and you will experience those side effects. So imagine this; the once brown or black eyebrows you had tattooed will eventually turn to orange and blue over time. The fine line eyeliner will also change color and transform into a thicker, smeared looking line due to ink bleeding. Lastly, the process of aging will change our face once gravity takes over and will make lips thinner, brows lower and eyes droopier. So if you tattoo your face with brows at 30 years old, you will have them too high on your forehead at 60. See my point?
Also the permanent makeup needs to be touched-up every few years because of those fading, bleeding and color changing issues, so it’s not a onetime deal. It’s also expensive and although it may look good once it’s done, it never looks good as time goes on. I have yet to meet a woman who doesn’t have obvious tattooed makeup or that looked good with it. I have however seen so many women before me getting their makeup done and regretting their decision and asking me to “cover up” the tattoos. Sometimes I can, but usually it’s only a temporary fix for something that they have to live with.
Although there are reputable companies out there that specialize in permanent makeup, you can’t see into the future of how you will look with it, so is it really worth saving you an extra 10 min every morning? Part of the fun of makeup is to try out new colors, trends and application techniques, but if you are already tattooed, you give yourself no options and are stuck with what you have. That’s one regret I wouldn’t want and I can't think of many who would.
