Pasty lips… disappearing brows… one-dimensional eyes. Thanks to the growing popularity of permanent makeup, these beauty blues are becoming a thing of the past. Buoyed by better pigments and ever-evolving equipment, permanent makeup has had an image overhaul in recent years, making the art of indelibly enhancing facial features a sought-after service. The high fees and healthy profits associated with this delicate form of tattooing are also attracting an audience of interested day spa owners who are eager to embrace a new category of services that promises to improve their bottom line.

That isn't to say that permanent makeup is new. This indelible art has been around since at least the Ice Age, as evidenced by the mummified remains of the "Ice Man," a European ancestor who perished in the frigid Italian Alps some 5,000 years ago. It's even rumoured that Cleopatra took time away from her seemingly endless beauty rituals to have her eyes enhanced with permanent pigments. Despite thousands of years of decorative history, though, it wasn't until the late 1970s that permanent makeup left the murky recesses of tattoo parlors in North America to become part of the professional beauty industry.
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Most permanent makeup technicians offer eyebrow shaping and augmentation, lash enhancement (a thin line right next to the lashes), eyeliner, lip liner and full lip treatments. Those who work with physicians broaden their skills to include camouflaging scars, cleft lips and vitiligo, as well as recreating areolas (nipples) for patients who have undergone surgical breast reconstruction.

"Permanent makeup is actually a very fine tattooing procedure that's meant to enhance a person's natural features, and not give them a fully made-up look," advises Charo Keener, permanent makeup technician instructor for her company, Le Belle International in Destin, Florida. This has to be made clear to clients, or they could be in for a big disappointment. I can't tell you how many clients handed me a picture of Catherine Jones, for instance, and said, 'I want to look like her.' To reinforce the realistic information you provide to clients, I suggest that you give them a brochure that explains the entire permanent makeup concept from what to expect in terms of results and healing times to the phases pigment implants go through before settling into final coloration."

Return on Investment

On the surface, permanent makeup services appear to offer huge profits, generating as much as $400 per hour in gross earnings. A lip liner, for instance, can easily bring $400, and a full lip enhancement—a two hour service for the average permanent makeup artist-can fetch up to $800. Owners need to be aware, however, that this fee has to cover many costs, including:

-At least one refresher visit that’s typically needed after a permanent makeup procedure. The cost of the pigments and disposable items, as well as the investment in equipment.

-All of those training courses a technician needs to become proficient with permanent makeup pigments and techniques.

-A dedicated permanent makeup room that should have more of a clinical than an esthetic setup.

-Specialized insurance.

Your standard liability insurance policy for your spa isn't likely to cover invasive procedures like permanent makeup. The Marine Agency (www.marineagency.com) and the Professional Program Insurance Brokerage (www.tattoo-ins.com) are two of the few companies that insure permanent makeup technicians in most states, with the annual premium for $1 million in liability coverage costing as much as $1,100. This protects your company against dissatisfied customers--the most common problem with permanent makeup services, according to the Food and Drug Administration-as well as injuries that are directly associated with any permanent makeup procedure.

Skills Are Key

It's important to note that permanent makeup is largely unregulated in terms of licensure. Check with your state, county and city to find out all the rules that apply to your business before introducing any permanent makeup service. Since dissatisfied clients are likely to be your biggest problem, experienced professionals stress the importance of being very particular about who does these services in your .day spa.

" A lot of owners have an esthetician who enjoys doing makeup, so they send this person to a three-day course to become a permanent make- up artist," says Henry Yon Norden, spa director and co-owner of Monique's Day Spa & Massage Center in Santa Clarita, California. "This could prove to be a poor decision unless this person already has extensive training in corrective makeup techniques and how different pigments change color according to a person's skin tone. Too, she needs to be devoted enough to attend advanced courses on a regular basis, do procedures every day and, in short, live and breathe permanent makeup until her work is considered exceptional. I think it's important to hire only people with an excellent portfolio. This compilation of their best work will tell you right away whether or not they have what it takes to please your clients."

You'll also want to make sure your technicians maintain a clean environment that's on par with a medical office, perform thorough consultations and take meticulous client histories. You can make up your own client history form or use one provided by one of the permanent makeup organizations in the industry (see "Joining the Cause" above left). A technician who doesn't do these things will bring you nothing but problems, warn industry pros.

"It's so true," says Yon Norden. "I did an eyebrow enhancement on a client several years ago after taking the precaution of having her fill out an extensive client form. Eight years later, she returned for a refresher service. Since she hadn't had any problems in the past, I didn't have her fill out another client history form. A week after her refresher procedure, she returned complaining of her brows being red, flaky and itchy. Two weeks later, she complained of the same symptoms, only worse. It turned out that her system had changed between her first and second procedures, and she was having an allergic reaction to the pigments. A doctor had to treat her brow area with cortisone medication for months before the symptoms finally subsided-and she was lucky. Sometimes when an allergic reaction like that takes place, the only recourse is to excise the pigment with a series of laser treatments. I have to emphasize that this was an extremely rare circumstance- the only one I've experienced in 20 years of doing permanent makeup-but it was enough to make me extremely careful about getting all the facts before every procedure."

Equipment Options

"I've done six to eight permanent makeup procedures a day for over 20 years," says Yon Norden, whose list of permanent makeup clients reads like a celebrity "who's who." "When I first started doing these procedures, there were no permanent makeup machines on the market. We would take a length of bamboo, split it, insert a beading needle, then use a cotton string to wrap the outside of the bamboo stick from the base to the top and then back down to the base again. I recently came across an ad I ran in the early 1980s that shows this bamboo stick. It reads, 'Permanent makeup! Now available in 8 colors!' How funny is that? I now have seven permanent makeup machines; the most expensive is a new digital unit that cost $5,000. I also work with 50 different pigments to minimize the amount of custom mixing, since it's difficult to match colors years down the road when clients return for a refresher service."

Whatever machines and brands technicians believe are best-and most will swear by their machines-it's clear that permanent makeup/tattoo equipment is as personal as scissors are to stylists or manicuring tools are to nail technicians. Here are some of the options:

Rotary Applicator. Today, the most common device used for implanting pigment into delicate facial tissue is a rotary machine. The technician holds a pen-like device and uses different needle configurations to tattoo different size areas, making either lines or smudge-Iike brush strokes. The needle actually spins on a wheel mechanism, hitting the skin at approximately 2,000 to 3,000 revolutions per minute, depending on the style and brand of the machine. Technicians work in a slow, deliberate fashion, gradually depositing pigment. In order for permanent make- up to look fresh for many years, the pigment must be implanted into the dermal layer of the skin.

The newest, most advanced rotary machines are digital, have a more powerful rotary motor and operate at a consistent speed regardless of the thickness of the skin. " A digital machine is like having cruise control on your car," explains Philip Diorio, managing director of Perfect Profiles in Celebration, Florida. "You can drive a steady 50 miles per hour up a hill, and then go down the hill at exactly the same speed." For more information on digital equipment, access Nouveau Contour at www.nouveaucontour.com.

Coil Applicator. Experienced, busy permanent makeup technicians sometimes prefer to use a powerful coil machine that's traditionally used for body tattoos. The needles in a coil machine move straight up and down, and hit the skin at a measured depth. Because a coil applicator is more powerful than a rotary machine, it gets the job done much faster. This machine is well-balanced, but noisier than either a rotary or digital machine. Experts advise anyone wanting to use a coil machine to seek specific training.

Hand Tapping. Despite the many options, SofTap, a popular handheld tat- too device that manually taps pigment into the skin, is still the tool of choice for many permanent makeup artists, including those working at Transitions Day Spa in Carmel, New York. "I've used the different types of machines on the market and still prefer the hand-tapping method because I have better control over the depth at which I'm implanting the pigment and the total design," says Frank Salazar, co-owner, permanent makeup artist and instructor. "Too, there's no vibration that's typically associated with rotary and coil machines to irritate my wrists and hands."

Marketing Results

According to day spas with a long track record of brisk permanent makeup sales, a sizable portion of the female population-and even a few men--consider permanent makeup to be a benefit to their appearance and lifestyle. Debbie McClellan, permanent makeup maven and author of Is Permanent Makeup For You? and 101 Questions & Answers on Permanent Makeup for the Technician (available through www.mei-cha.com} advises there's no need to buy a lot of expensive ads when word-of-mouth advertising will bring you plenty of business. You can handily do this by offering attractive discounts to all stylists and nail artists in your area. "They love to tell clients about their latest permanent makeup procedures," says McClellan. "When they do, many of their people will book appointments with your spa."

McClellan also states that it's smart to offer some type of cross-promotion with bridal stores since they cater to women who are always looking for new ways to look their best when the tears start to flow on their wedding day and during the honeymoon that follows. "It's also effective to show clients how great their brows would look with permanent makeup, for instance, while you're doing their lips or eyes," she says. 'Offering a slight discount if they decide to add services that day or book an appointment in the near future often cinches the deal."

Once word gets out that you have a talented permanent makeup artist on staff, you'll need to start training an assistant. Since this service isn't yet available in most spas, and people are reluctant to have it done by someone they don't know or trust, offering a first class service in a day spa setting is a formula for almost instant success.

Elaine Spear is a former salon owner, a DAYSPA contributing editor and a spa/salon consultant to major corporations. She's based in Santa Fe, and can be contacted at IbFashion@aol.com.