When I was a kid, one of our neighbors had her eyebrows and eyeliner tattooed. I remember her coming out into her yard in the mornings to get the paper and thinking she always looked a bit off, like her makeup was too blue or something.
Today, permanent makeup (permanent pigmentation of the dermis) is more popular than ever. Some women do it for convenience (I admit — filling in my brows every day sure gets old), but others do it after illness, chemotherapy or injury to recreate eyebrows, disguise scars and white spots or to restore pigmentation to damaged skin.
Would you ever get permanent makeup?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Katee says
Not just no, HELL NO!!!!
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Archelle says
I’d love to get some guidelines of my eyebrows tattooed on. Like not my whole brow but a really subtle mark where my arch should be, and where my eyebrow should end. That would speed things up for me but still not look cheesy.
Brittany says
I pretty much agree with Katee. 😛
I know a girl who has her eyeliner and eyebrows done and she’s so pale and her makeup is like BLACK and it just looks awful and unnatural. She loves it, but I wouldn’t want it.
Liliana says
I’ve had it done actually. I had my eyebrows and my eyeliner (upper and lower, along the lashline – or more like in between the eyelashes. it makes the lashes look fuller.) done about 2 yrs ago at Gold Coast MedSpa in Chicago. I’ve also had laser hair removal, dermabrasion, and botox done there as well. Julie Hoff, a certified nurse, did the procedure and since she is a RN she was able to give me an injection to numb my forehead as opposed to a topical which made it much less painful!!!
The results look very natural. I had it done because I overplucked my eyebrows (been plucking since I was 12 and am now 27) so they stopped growing and i do still have brows, but very very sparingly. either way, its great not to have to put my brows on every morning!
courtnie says
my mom had cosmetic surgery done when i was younger. she had her blush, eyeliner, lipstick and eyebrows down. it’s pretty much all faded now. you can still see a hint of it but not much. i dont think i’d ever do it. i’ve got 6 tattoos but i dont think i could handle one on my face.
Sylvie says
I am actually considering getting the tail of my eyebrows done. It’s not that they are sparse (hell no my eyebrows are the last you’ll call sparse), it’s just that in France, my beautician threads my eyebrows too thin towards the end(it’s their trend I guess) and they don’t grow out much anymore and they look more sparse in comparison with the rest of my eyebrows and frankly I’m getting a little fed-up with having to fill it in every morning (though it’s been less than 6 months that I’ve been doing so). My mum did get her eyebrows done though and they look perfectly natural because the tattoo is semi-permanent and little strokes that represent hair are drawn instead of a whole patch of colour.
Holly says
Oh gosh no never ever ever!! Maybe its the committment phobe in me but anything that I cant just get rid of once im bored is a huge no no for me!
Plus I have seen some horiffic lip and brow lines in my time on the counter haha!
Charm says
I couldn’t do without the options of makeup. What about colored liners!?! Maybe if I was older and my eyebrows hairs got thinner I would.
Vivian says
my mom got permenant eyebrows, but she was dragged in by my aunt. She says tat it was sooo painful and when they started to do her eyeliner, she finally yelled STOP!
so, no way! oh and have you heard of eyelash surgery. Some ccrazy women decided to get implants on their eyelashes. That hurrrts!
p. potter says
Initially I want to say NO! But if it was necessary after medical procedures I would consider going to someone whose work I could see before decided to use them. Like a plastic surgeon’s book, I’d want to see proof of their skill.
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lily says
Yea 😀 it’s not harmful so I wouldn’t mind. I think I want to get them semi-permanent so they fade away after a few months.
I just want to get my brows done so I don’t have to bother with them..and because my brows are just annoying as hell, there’s no shape and it’s so sparse haah
Jen says
I would do it… but only due to illness. I think its great that options are available for women to feel beautiful!
🙂
Tatiana says
I have 2 tattoos on my body and I’m considering to get more but I would never consider tattooing sensitive areas like eyelids or lips. It sounds too painful, even for me.
Lydia says
I also would only do it if I had an illness, I was just watching an episode of judge Mathis or something where someone did this and it went way wrong. Aah!
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Tami says
i probably wouldn’t do it just because it will take away the fun of putting on makeup ^^
Glosslizard says
I’m with Holly, I could never commit to one style! Even if I wanted to, I could never pick one style to commit to! 🙂
Bobbie Hudson-Penick says
I would love the chance to have my eyebrows done! If it is ever in my budget this is at the top of my have to have list. I have practically zero eyebrow hair & have tried everything to make them look….well, you know…more!My make-up cabinet is full of products that promise to either make them magically grow or make them appear with very little to show for my effort not to mention(I always laugh at that phrase as, well your mentioning it)the amount of cold hard cash I’ve invested. I really should have said NOTHING to show but I tend to be a generous soul! If you ever fing anything that really works I will gladly worship at your goddess feet!
Aqilla says
I have a naturally very crooked lip line and have always been tempted to go in for such a procedure since I normally don’t like to wear lipstick. I always end up going for the other type of tattoos instead…love the endorphin rush.
Mariah says
No thanks, I could never commit to something like that! Funny, I can commit to a man, but I could NEVER commit to a tattoo or perm makeup or something like that!
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Eva says
I am a total wuss and I don´t think I could stand the pain..
My eyebrows are sparse and filling them in every day is a pain in the behind, but I am to scared to get them tattoed…I also like that I can draw different shapes now (more or less).
Maybe I would consider doing that if I´d loose my hair due to a desease or medication, but now? Nope.
As for eyeliner or lipliner (*shudder* there are loads of women running around here who had a dark lipliner tattoed in the 90s when the dark liner/light lipstick-combo was so hot. They look ridiculous now…and a little cheap..) – no way!!!
cams says
maybe…if there really is no other choice
Kelly says
Where I work, they offer this service in the Skin Care center part of the practice. The lady who does it has been doing it for YEARS and does a wonderful job. A number of my coworker have had liner and brows done. It does fade since this area of your body is exposed to a lot of light, you can choose how light/dark of a color, and the area is numbed so it’s not painful. My boss had her eyeliner done… she’s got bad allergies to just about every kind of eyeliner, so it’s been a godsend for her. After two years, she had it redone as it had faded considerably. It looks very natural.
If I were to have it done, I’d have her do a medium brown so that I’d still have the option of going over it with different colors or black. And if I was feelin’ lazy, it’d already be ready to go with the brown. 😉
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Sandy says
I got talked into getting an eyeliner tatoo for my lower lashes when I was in my early 20’s (Oh, to be that young, but not that foolish, again!). It hurt like H*LL! I freaked when I saw how hard looking and dark it was. I went home, took a washcloth and scrubbed the H*LL out of my poor lower eyelid skin. It worked, and I was left with a very faint, soft greyish line. My poor skin was red and raw for a week, BUT now I look like I have naturally full lower eyelashes and you have to look really closely to see that it’s a tatoo. BUT I would never put myself through another experience with permanent makeup again.
Elena says
I swear that I’m the only person I know who has to tame and not fill in my eyebrows. If I ever had the cash, I’d love to get my eyelashes tinted and magically curled, because I actually have thick lashes, they’re just really faint for my coloring. If I were ever hurt or sick, though, I would consider some procedures to lighten scars or whatnot.
Just out of curiosity, what brought up permanent make-up?
Anastasia says
Trends change so quickly in makeup (bushy eyebrows one year, nearly plucked away the next)… I think only if I had to medically would I do this. Mind you, like my mom, I am losing the edges of my once fantastic “perfect never had to do anything to them” eyebrows. Ah, aging!!!
Anastasia.
Marisol says
At this point in my life I don’t think that I would. Funny story – my mom for some reason sees tattoos as a sign of rebellion or something like that. Always makes comments about people with tattoos. Well one day, I finally started laughing at her when she mentioned her tattoo peeve because my mom has her bottom liner and brows tattooed. I asked her if she realize that she also fell into the rebellious way of living (according to her) and she was mortified. I didn’t think she realized that no matter where you get inked it is still a tattoo.
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lexi says
why would i want to look like i’m permanently surprised or angry? what’s the fun in that?
Joanne says
My sister recently got her eyebrows tattooed. It doesn’t look that bad. I also know someone who got her eyebrows and eyeliner tattooed. All I could think about was how much it must have hurt to get the liner tattooed.
Catherine says
One of my friends has her eyebrows tattooed in, but I guess it was a while ago so they’ve faded… and with her sparse brows it just looks AWFUL when she doesn’t keep up with her plucking. I’ve considered getting just the tails of my eyebrows done (and not done in China like she had hers…) because I basically don’t HAVE tail ends but I haven’t really considered it seriously. My bangs hide the ends of my brows anyway so I haven’t even bothered to draw them in most of the time.
Camille says
I have a half sleeve on my arm (tattooed from shoulder to elbow), but I would not do permanent makeup. To see how the colors change, even over a course of 5 years is enough to put me off. I don’t think I would do it, even if I lost my hair due to disease/medical reasons.
As a tattooed individual, my advice is to see a portfolio of work, containing unedited photos of freshly done tattoos, and tattoos that are healed! See what the finished product looks like before you commit, done by the particular person you are working with. If you don’t feel comfortable with them, or they refuse to give you references/photos, it’s ok to leave.
Heidi says
my mom has her eyebrows and eyeliner tattooed. She got the procedure done decades ago, and now her eyebrows have blue-ish tint to them. It looks really fake and…blue! haha. Her eyeliner looks subtle but her brows are really something.
Ellery says
I can understand if you were ill and did it to have eyebrows, but otherwise it looks so fake and tacky imo.
And what about when they’re old? It’ll be all wrinkly and saggy and disgusting.
Kaylin Marie says
I would consider getting a very very thin eyeliner tattooed just on the along the lashline, as long as it could still pass off as natural.
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Stephie says
I have a handful of aunts and whatnot that have tattooed eyebrows. Tons of the older filipino women at my church have those tat brows. when i was younger i thought they were so cool since i suffered from man brows bushing above my eyes but when i noticed they all had a slightly blueish tint to them up close i nixed the idea. HA.
renee Gallo says
Well I was against it too, until I saw how good my girlfriend looked after she had it done … First I didn’t know why she looked fresher and younger … When she told me what it was, I had to look twice because everything was so fine , and perfectly blending with her natural brow, eyes and lips , that you would swear she had nothing on… It looked like she had had a face lift !!!
Although I was against having it done It looked so nice I couldn’t help it but doing it too :)and made an appointment with Dominique Bossavy in Beverly Hills… had the full job done ( ebrows, liner, lips) not only it didn’t hurt, I was able to go out the same night ! I must say , I am SOOOO HAPPY ! I have never seen permanent makeup look so good before … This would probably explain , why I had to wait 3 weeks to get in 🙁 … But it was all worst it … Now I am saving to get some scar camouflage done… Oh and although she is very busy , with big names , she is super nice and down to earth …
AshleyK says
What happens in like 20 years when your face falls….what will it look like then?
Diva Style says
Absolutely not! Never! I’m a look changer upper, LOL.
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Carla says
Hi,
I had my eyeliner done 10 years ago and I must say it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done – it’s really discreet, but has made a subtle difference…
seattle says
🙁 i had to get my brows tattooed because i have… none! i’m not a fan of permanent makeup but i had to do it. i couldn’t take the embarassment of the “no brow look” and it was too much work trying to draw them in daily. most ppl brush their teeth first thing when they wake up. i had to draw my eyebrows on THEN brush my teeth.
Fiona says
Hi,
I’ve had my eyebrows, eyeliner and lips done last year and really love it! It saves me so much time in the morning – would never like to be without permanent makeup!
Alex says
I can’t believe how negative everyone is on here about these procedures. Firstly, can I clarify that this is nothing like getting a normal tattoo. I have both and getting a normal tattoo done is much more painful. Sure, when these techniques were first invented they may not have been as natural looking as you can get now but if you do your research you can quickly assess who are leaders in the field are…
I have recently had brows, lash enhancement with part shaded eyeliner and full lip soft blush. I did not find the procedure painful at all. I went to Karen Betts who has the best reputation in the UK. It was more expensive than other people but if you’re getting anything permanent done to your face it is well worth the extra money. Given that I have always had comments that I didn’t appear to be wearing much makeup (when I felt I was) I definitely did not want the overly made up look. Firstly, I got my brows done – I had hair, all be it very fine blond hair and I had no tails. Karen shaped and thickened and darkened my brows using a 3D hair-stroke technique and by measuring the proportions of my face. She recreated my tails higher up giving me a look like I had a mini face lift. This was very pleasing. Unfortunately, I woke up on the 2nd day and had completely scratched off half of one tail so I had to keep colouring this in until I had my free retouch and now the both brows look amazing. I had comments on my eyebrows before but now because they look more natural than when I used to layer them with makeup I have comments saying they look, “amazing” and that you could never tell I had them done. Tip: for the more natural look it helps if you have hair to start with so if you are thinking about it year on year and continuously plucking away I would consider getting them done sooner rather than later. You tend to leave hairs that you might have been previously plucked due to the new shape so actually I now have thicker looking brows naturally too.
It has only been a few days since I have had my eyes and lips done so I am yet to see the final result. For my lips, I was very specific about not wanting the lipstick/lip liner effect and said I just wanted to bring out my natural colouring and definition. Tip: For natural lip colouring effect: I pulled down my bottom lip and showed Karen the inside of my bottom lip to highlight the natural colouring I was after. And what a job she did. I have never liked my lips or worn much lipstick because of it but now they look youthful, plump and natural due to the subtle colouring and definition. They will most likely lighten up further since it has only been a few days but if they go too light I can get another layer of colour in my free re-touch appointment in June. Without doubt, the lips has been the most surprising outcome as I was really fearing the lip liner effect but I don’t think it looks like I am actually wearing lipstick or lipliner – Great job Karen! One negative about the lips is that it is more uncomfortable than the eye procedure when at the cupids bow.
The eyes I will admit I am still getting used to. Having only ever used eye shadow as eyeliner I am still getting used to the defined (although fine) line effect…I am hoping to see significant fading in the coming week though so…the jury is still out but if I am really unhappy again I can make some alterations in my free re-touch appointment.
Some people may think I am vain but I admit it is more about lifestyle choice for me and I didn’t want to resort to surgery of any kind. I don’t have a shower in the house so getting up each morning involves a bath which takes between 20-30 mins. Applying my make up would usually take the same amount of time; add breakfast and I have to get up 1 and a half hours earlier than I need to leave which eats into valuable morning sleeping time. Anything I can do that will reduce this “maintenance” time will make my life less busy and therefore less stressful. After all, 30 mins of extra sleep every day amounts to a lot of extra sleep in my life time. As silly as it may sound as well, one day I hope to have children and I know I will have even less time to invest in myself then and I sometimes visualise the classic post birth mother and baby picture and count myself lucky that I will not look as worse for wear as most in that situation…If you are thinking about getting it done – do your research and get someone with a good reputation – pay a little more if necessary this is your face you are talking about, be clear about what you want, go for less is more if you’re not confident – retouches are free initially and then only a token of your initial cost so tweaks are easily made.
ashley says
I am 17 and I just recently had my eyeliner done. yes it was painful but it was worth it. i love it! my mom has had hers eye liner eye brows and lips done and she just now 10 years later had to get a small touch up.
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Elmari Gous says
I had my eyeliner done today . And I am so impressed with the result . CANT WAIT TO SEE THE HEALED RESULT