A recent trend has been observed in women: as they age, they become more and more likely to spontaneously get a tattoo.
It seems as if the notion behind this phenomenon is that tattoos will somehow preserve the youth of an aging woman. It doesn’t make much sense to me, but I’m currently minutes away from getting tattooed.
Don’t worry; I’m not getting some obnoxiously huge eagle across my chest. Instead, I’m getting my eyebrows tattooed. Karen Betts, Britain’s renowned Brow Queen, stands over me with her needle, anxiously waiting to give me my first taste of ink.
Given my fear of needles, I still can’t believe I’m going through with this. My forehead has been numbed with cream, but it doesn’t completely alleviate my distress.
“Out of ten, how badly does this hurt?”
Karen assured me that would be about a four or a five. At first I would feel pain, but after a few minutes, I would only feel a scraping sensation.
My excitement overshadowed my fear of the discomfort of the procedure. I had longed for great eyebrows; they had previously seemed like an impossible attainment, but now, here was my opportunity.
Karen has over 20 years of experience. She is so experienced, in fact, that she trains other beauticians how to perfect brow shaping with permanent make-up.
Permanent ink in the beauty industry isn’t just for make-up, however; Karen is also proficient at medical tattooing, which is a service sought after by cancer patients and those with burns or scars.
I take a deep breath and do my best to convince myself not to back out now.
Now, it’s time to decide: how dark do I want them? What effect do I want them to have?
To convey my desires as accurately as I can, I tell Karen that I want my eyebrows to look like a cross between Angelina and Nigella. However, I do not want Cara Delevigne.
She draws eyebrows on me to ensure that she captured the look perfectly, and perfectly she did. They looked good enough for me to go home that moment, but we had work to do.
One would think that the easiest part would be cleaning up my eyebrow shape through plucking. Unfortunately, I am almost in tears after she begins. I should have told her beforehand that I have an extremely low pain tolerance in that area.
“We’re just going to do a bit of threading,” and a “bit” of threading sure translated into a whole lot of pain.
“That’s the worst part,” she declares. She goes on to say that the actual treatment is usually less painful for most people. I, however, am not most people.
Although I am rife with fear as she begins, it all soon dissolves. There’s no loud, obnoxious buzzing from the machine. There’s hardly any pain at all. Everything is quiet to the point where it is almost soothing.
She makes tiny, narrow cuts into my eyebrows with her special tool, where she then places the ink. She refers to this practice as “microblading.”
She wipes each brow a few times. Then, something amazing happened: she was finished!
While it is referred to as “permanent make-up,” it isn’t entirely permanent.
Over the next year and a half, the ink will fade slightly, so it is recommended to have the area touched up at least once every 12 months.
I was never any good at putting make-up on. Red lipstick and dark shades were the furthest I ever really went. I also never had any idea on how to handle my eyebrows, which were always some ambiguous shade of beige.
It is said that eyebrows provide structure to the entire face. If this saying is true, then I was in desperate need of refurbishing. I can’t draw them myself, because every time I do it looks like a child got loose with a pencil and I was the victim.
Unfortunately for me, given my ineptness at beautifying myself, I was never able to make my eyebrows “work.” Karen insists that the right brows can enhance the appearance of the entire face.
I don’t anticipate that great of a change, given that they are just eyebrows after all. Then, however, she holds up the mirror, and I see my reflection.
I was amazed. I had no idea the difference would be anything more than marginal. I simply could not believe how much better they looked. Eyebrows truly do provide structure to the face.
The color difference between my brows and the ink was nearly indiscernible!
It is important to choose the right individual to go to for this type of service; someone inexperienced could literally scar you for life.
As I compared the before and after photos, I could immediately see differences in how my face looked. I looked more vibrant, and maybe even a little firmer. Nigella would definitely approve. For more information regarding tattooing your eyebrows, [Click Here].