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Body Beautiful provides patients with a quick understanding of how permanent makeup works and what to expect when arriving at your consultation.
Prior to getting your permanent makeup tattoo, the technician slips on vinyl or nitrile gloves and examines your skin to make sure there are no scrapes, cuts, or broken skin. The area is either swabbed with alcohol or sprayed with an antiseptic solution to prep the area for your permanent makeup procedure. Intradermal pigmentation is a micro-insertion of pigments into the dermal layer of the skin.
Sometimes for eyebrows, the technician transfers a stencil of the tattoo (your desired design) onto your skin. Some technicians may draw it on with a non-toxic marker pen.
You are then asked to verify the placement (position of the design) and shape, which is about to be implanted into your skin. If everything is to the client’s and technicians’ satisfaction, then a thin layer of topical anesthetic is spread over the area to numb the skin.
Any type of tattoo is applied using either a small electrical device (a traditional tattoo coil or rotary pen) or a hand tool. The needle assembly holds multiple needles to implant colored pigments. The FDA regulates tattoo needles and this technique is medically proven to be safe.
The tattooing device basically works like a small sewing machine: the needle assembly rapidly moves up and down, pushing the needles into the middle layer (dermis) of the skin, implanting the chosen pigment. Our professional technician operates the machine with a steady hand while controlling and guiding it along the skin. The speed and power are controlled by a footswitch or pedal, much like a sewing machine.
A needle penetrates the skin only a couple of millimeters as the tubes or needle caps limit the needles from penetrating any deeper. A double needle is used to make a very fine, delicate line, multiple needles grouped together are used for shading and more solid “fill-ins”.
How Permanent Makeup Works – Applying makeup correctly is a skill that takes a while to master. When first experimenting with it, many teenage girls slather it on, as if trying to send the world a bold-faced message that they are now adults. Unfortunately, they usually end up looking like little girls who got into their mother’s cosmetics while playing dress up. Certainly, many women remember those early days of trial and error (and error, and error), when wearing makeup was new and exciting.
Luckily, with maturity, most women gain an appreciation of subtlety and refine their techniques to produce more elegant, understated looks. Naturally, we all discover and develop our own styles too, as we test a myriad of foundation combinations, the endless palettes of lipstick and eyeshadow colors that are available.
Of course, our complexions continue to change, as time marches on, “on our faces, that is”! Eventually, wearing makeup can turn from being capricious and fun, into a very serious business.
The trouble is that this leads some women to revert to the heavy-handed method of application, using it to fill in lines and wrinkles or to draw on, or augment, lips or eyebrows. Not only does this result in exaggerated, unnatural-looking features, but the makeup may also settle into lines, thus making them even more noticeable. This is the point where many women begin to lament the cruel irony that they originally started wearing it because they wanted to look older.
As the years pass, failing eyesight, unsteady hands and various medical conditions can also make it difficult to apply cosmetics properly and evenly. Moreover, once it becomes a tiring, time-consuming chore, many women simply give up. Sadly this can be very depressing and may make some people self-conscious enough to avoid socializing.
On the other hand, happily, most of these situations can be resolved. If you’ve exhausted your makeup bag of tricks, it may be time to try a new kind of magic. At Body Beautiful Laser Medi-spa, Marcia Hale can rejuvenate your appearance with permanent cosmetics for your eyes, lips, brows; and she is a genuine makeup artist. In fact, she’s exceptionally talented, all-around artist, whose paintings and murals adorn the walls of many offices (including ours), reception areas, and homes. Fervent about her craft, Marcia, who has a keen, unerring eye for detail, and a genius for nuances, brings the same passion and skills to her vocation as our Permanent Makeup Technician.
