Tattoo artists do more than accessorize Millennials. Many provide cosmetic and medical services.
Pat Peters of Chardon recently tapped into their services for eyebrows. “I was a child of the late ‘50s, early ‘60s. Back then, we all had to pluck our eyebrows. When you keep plucking, eventually they don’t come back,” she says. “Combine that with age and I lost the last one-third of my eyebrows. I couldn’t find the right color eye pencil to replace them and I got tired of crooked eyebrows. They never matched.”
After her husband’s death, Peters decided to do something for herself – get permanent eyebrows. “I’m trying to be the best me I can be,” she says. “Now I can’t picture my face without them. They frame my face. The color is perfect.”
Ink that Camouflages
Christine Gallowan, tattoo artist and owner of Mirror Mirror Artistry in Cleveland, works with people to camouflage scars from chemotherapy ports, to define lip shape after cleft-palate surgery, to recreate belly buttons and to restore breast appearance.
For example, mastectomy patients lose nipples and surrounding breast structure. “I will recreate in 3D — using shadow and highlight 0151 — a nipple and areola. Some women visit me before surgery or bring a photograph so when they come back after healing, I can recreate what they had before.”
“I’m not fixing anything, I’m camouflaging,” she says.
While medical issues draw many Boomers to tattoos, cosmetic changes due to aging such as hair loss and skin fading lead others to find a permanent and convenient solution.
Peters’ daughter, Anna Peters, 55, of East Claridon Township, had brownish-black eyeliner tattooed onto her lower lids several years earlier. “I like my eyes and like to show them off, ”she says. “Permanent eyeliner is the best thing I’ve done for myself. If I’m just hanging out around town, I never have to put makeup on. I would do it again.”
The chief operations officer at University Ophthalmology Associates in South Euclid, she says, “I work for seven eye doctors. One of my bosses liked it so much, she had it done.”
Neither woman wanted to lose their looks to aging. So, both had their makeup tattooed by Kym Hoover of Specialeyez in Perry. Hoover started her business to help folks with alopecia (hair loss) and had lost their eyebrows. Because of the condition, Hoover decided to have her eyebrows tattooed 25 years ago.
Gallowan sees many Boomers interested in cosmetic tattooing for a simple reason: “As we get a little older, we lose vibrancy in the face.”
Lips fade, eyebrows thin and whites of the eyes dull. Permanent makeup – lipstick, eyebrows and eyeliner – help put your best face forward.
Improved Outcomes
Gallowan has worked with more than 17,000 women and men over the past 15 years. “All I’m doing is following bone structure and features and doing my best to restore what they had before,” she says.
This isn’t your mother’s permanent makeup, says Gallowan. The industry has changed in just the past 10 years. She finds today’s permanent makeup softer and more natural.
“When you have the appropriate colors and shapes, (tattooing) is subtle,” she says. “It may be noticeable to you at first but not as much to other people.”
The biggest trend in permanent makeup is microblading, tattooing fine lines to fill in or simulate eyebrows. The difference from tattooing is due to the hand instrument that’s used to apply tattoo ink into the skin.
“Microblading has become popular because it’s done by hand,” says Gallowan. “It’s gentler. The hair stroke is fine and mimics brow hair more realistically than a regular tattoo.”
No matter the cosmetic procedure or reason behind getting the help of a tattoo professional, it’s not about remaking someone, Gallowan says.
“It’s about reviving, restoring, not so much to completely changing someone’s appearance. It’s more about enhancing appearance.”
Paris Wolfe wants permanent eyeliner but is still trying to overcome her fear of needles.
