Tattooed Eyebrows - diary post

My Eyebrows are a bone of contention sometimes.  They are permanent tattoos.  They replace the temporary tattoos I had done a few years ago, ones that I was told would only last two years, and lasted about a year and a half then started fading.

I was scared to get permanent tattoos.  Having had Alopecia Universalis since I was ten years old, and now in my thirties, its not like my own eyebrows are going to grow in any time soon so that I have two mis-matched versions of eyebrows on my face.  Just that getting tattoos, on your face, that last any length of time at all, is a pretty daunting prospect.  You have to live with it, on your face, for a very long time.

Why was I getting them done?  There were lots of reasons. At the time I'd lived with Alopecia for fifteen years or so, I don't really count its been all of my adult life.  When my hair first fell out, permanent cosmetics didn't exist, there was always the hope my hair would grow back in too.  I was hopeless at drawing eyebrows on, I found the process each morning extremely repetitive and frustrating as I drew them on a different way each day, and they never looked quite right.  I wore bandanna over my forehead a lot of the time, covering up the space where eyebrows should be.  But I'd reached a time in my life where I thought, you know, I'm starting to get older, I'm reaching a stage where I've only got a few photographs of adulthood with hair as my inability to draw them is putting me off wearing wigs.  Looking like all the other people, and what I would have looked like if my hair had ever decided to show up for adulthood.   I read that back to myself, and think, you know, hairy people go through rituals every single day - washing hair, brushing hair, straightening, dying, styling, and here you are complaining about ten minutes in front of the mirror drawing lines on your face.

So I told myself getting a professional to draw proper eyebrows on my face would do wonders for me, it would transform my life, save me time and stress and worry, and it actually did.

What shade do you choose?  What shape?  Luckily the woman who did my temporary tattoos (also known as permanent cosmetics) had done this many times before.  Check out their history, ask to see before and after photos of work they have already done.  If you don't feel comfortable, they'll either reassure you, or you can walk away.  Find someone else, change your mind later, get informed and give yourself a chance to think about it.

In the beauty room I drew the eyebrows on my face that I usually did, to show the woman what I was used to.  She curled her nose up at them.    I had to trust her advice, and that was quite difficult, putting trust in a complete stranger who's just screwed her nose up at these two things you've been drawing on your face and passing off as eyebrows for a while now.  She drew the shape on that she measured up against the shape of my face, and when she showed me them in the hand-held mirror, they looked likes big giant slugs on my face, I hated them, they were so arched and defined, not like me at all.  She warned me they would appear like that to me, completely alien, they were actually drawn on really thinly, and she would have to thicken them even further, it was just as I wasn't used to it.

It was a painless tattoo as she applied the clear gel - I think it was EMLA cream or similar - which numbed my skin on my forehead, and I didn't feel a thing.  It's a sensation, but not painful at all.  And there we had it, two years with perfectly tattooed eyebrows.  I paid £400.00 for the privilege of having lines drawn on my face.  I know the price has reduced dramatically since I had them done.  Hurray for popularity.

The temporary tattoos faded over time, losing their colour, so I started drawing over them in pencil, before one day, when I was on a girls holiday abroad in Bulgaria, a girl was giving me a facial massage, and wiped them clean off my face.  And there was nothing underneath them.  I couldn't explain to her very well why that was, but I asked her if she knew any local tattoo artists, there and then I decided I was going to do something about this lack of eyebrows on my face.

I got drunk, hey guys I'm on girls holiday here, and walked the promenade with my friend.  Finding the street tattoo shop, I walked in and scrolled through their ringbinders of work.  I had a good feeling about the place.  Jesus' face stared out at me from the pages of inky creations.  I peered at him, and tried very hard to focus through my drunken haze.  Then went "Ach, if he can tattoo Jesus' eyebrows he can tattoo mine."  and asked the man if I could get my eyebrows tattooed.

He looked at me, and said "I will have to make a call about this" in a thick Bulgarian accent.  My friend and I stood around, wondering what was going on.  He said, "This is a job for (I've forgotten the guys name I'll call him Igor for this tale) ...This is a job for Igor" he says, "Come back tomorrow at three.  He will meet you here."

So we hung around the pool and three o clock came around, and we went to the tattoo parlour and we hung around, no sign of Igor.  My friend edgily asking if the guy was going to show up.  Then he did, I knew it was him as soon as he walked through the door, he was dressed all in black, black jeans, black skin hugging t-shirt, black shades.  He sat me down and measured my face, the same way that the fully trained beautician woman did back in Scotland did for my temporary tattoos.  And I knew it was going to be alright.  This time there was no cream to numb the pain.  Not comfortable.  But hey, on holiday, going to be drunk again soon enough, pain is temporary, ouchees.  And then they were done.  Lovely, arched eyebrows on my face again.  Forever.

The guy gave me his card and asked me to tell other women that he did this.  I wondered if this was actually now their main line of business but they had street cred reputation to keep up, he was so skilled at it.  I paid £80.00 for these lines on my face.

My eyebrows are more of a fixed expression on my face than ordinary hairy folks'.  I cannot change the archedness of them.  I have been mistaken for looking down my nose at people at least three times since I've had them done, and that's only the people that have said that to me.  But the rest of the time, I worry not.  Never.  I have these two furry looking lines on my face that define facial expressions and frame my face, yes they look a bit drawn on, no they aren't perfect reproductions of the eyebrows I may have grown, but who cares, that sort of thinking adds way too much stress and worry into the equation.  Alot of women these days get their eyebrows tattooed, its now commonplace, people cannot tell you have no hair just because you have tattooed eyebrows now.   Thanks world for the changes and advances in beauty therapies.

In the photo below I have arched that right eyebrow a little and added a little colour pencil in, and am wearing an NHS wig (Boy have they improved in the last twenty years!).  And sure, my eyebrows might turn a shade of green in a few years time when the ink has faded a little, but I'll worry about that later on, if it actually happens.

Just be brave and be bold!