Are you unhappy with your permanent cosmetics?
Unfortunately not all artists are created equal. Tattooing the face comes with it’s own unique set of challenges and it takes many years of training and experience to get it right. It may surprise you to know that in NYC obtaining a tattoo license only requires filling out a short form, paying a fee and taking a 3 hour course on Blood Borne Pathogens. No proof of training is required. Even more surprising is that there are no formal training certifications governing PMU in NYC. In other words, to become a cosmetologist, the state requires 600-1000 hours of training plus a board administered exam. Tattooing/Permanent Cosmetics and Microblading have no formal certificate programs, which means anyone can slap their name on a certificate and hand it to a student.
How do you find a good artist?
The first step would usually be to do some research and ask about an artists credentials, training and licensing. Since I already mentioned that this doesn’t hold much weight in NYC, the next best things to do is to look at the artists work.
Things to look for:
- Do they post photos of the work on a regular and consistent basis?
- Do they post HEALED photos of their work (everyone can make PMU look good immediately after, the sign of a good artist is in the healed work)
- Do the keep up with continuing education? The sad truth is that many PMU classes are as little as 1-3 days long
- Are they certified members of the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals? The SPCP is a professional organization setting the standard for excellence through education since 1990. SPCP members adhere to a voluntary code of ethics. Flawless artists are Certified Permanent Cosmetic Professionals/SPCP members.
It’s also important to choose an artist whose style appeals to you. If you look through their portfolio and don’t see anything that you feel looks like how you want to look, then they may not be the right artist for you. Some artists are flexible and taylor their designs to the style of the client and some artists have a specific style. If you don’t like what you see, look for a different artist.
Check their reviews. If an artist has lots of satisfied customers its a good sign. Sometimes you may have 1 or 2 unhappy comments, which is totally normal, but more than that might be a bit of a flag.
Personal recommendations are always best. If you get a recommendation from someone you know, then you can be sure that the information you are getting is accurate and you’ll be able to see the work in person, without fancy lighting or filters.
Can it be fixed?
Fixing permanent makeup can be a difficult task. Pigment lives in side the skin (in a very thin layer) so it can’t just be covered up by “paining over” the old work. They key to correcting permanent makeup is neutralizing color and adjusting shape.
Sometimes this is a simple fix, other times the skin may be too saturated with old pigment, the shape may be too far off to fix or there may be scar tissue present. All of these produce different obstacles for the correction artist.
In order to assess the situation we require a free consultation for all previous work so that we can come up with a proper game plan to get you the best possible outcome.
Can it be removed?
Sometimes we simply can’t fix the existing work and the pigment must be removed before we can proceed.
At Flawless we offer a saline removal process which consists of tattooing a clear gel that has been specifically designed to lift pigment out of the skin. It’s a non-chemical, saline based, organic/vegan product called LiFT. Angela and Elsa are licensed LiFT instructors and having been performing removals since 2015.
There is no way to predict how many sessions might be needed, although we typically see 10-30% of pigment come out each session. Depending on the saturation and depth of the pigment it can take anywhere from 2 to 10 sessions and total removal is not guaranteed.
