A massacre.

I take permanent make-up very seriously.

I mean, even if they say it only lasts a limited time, it's pretty important that during that "limited time" you won't hate yourself every time you look in the mirror.

I would HATE it if I were ever to have permanent make-up done on my face and to have to be disappointed afterwards. Just the idea makes me shudder. I was a royal pain in the ass with my tattoo artist because I wanted it to be perfect (it's pretty close but not quite) and my tattoo isn't even visible to anyone unless I choose to show it. So imagine how much of a pain I could be when my face is involved.

Now I try to do things the best way I can. I'm a perfectionist, not perfect. I make mistakes (hoo boy have I made some..) and I strive to learn from them to never EVER have to live through the same thing AGAIN. I also want to make people happy and feel better about themselves.

Now when I see something horrible, I feel this stab in my gut even if it's not my fault.

I want to rip off the tattoo and replace it with something better.

Alas, I cannot. I could go to jail for that.

So all I can do is try to make it better. I normally do a good job of it, but when it's hopeless, I am gutted.

You see, I respect my boss, Môd, because she's been doing it for 15 years and handles the dermograph like she was born with it, but she too is not perfect.

I do creations, creation retouches (1 month after the initial creation) and yearly retouches, be it eyebrows, lips or eyes.

Since my boss wishes for me to "continue her legacy" (she's just tired of working I reckon), I get to retouch all her clients - except for the ones that ask for her specifically.

(I did have this one client, an elderly lady, who had come from Switzerland to have her eyebrows done by Môd because all her lady friends had had theirs done by her, so she had to have her, because her friends told her to only let Môd do it because she is the best, no one else. And she ended up with me.

"So you are Môd?" -Nope. I'm Laura.

Madame was not content.

In the end she accepted to let me do it and even gave me a happy tip of 10€ to show her content.

HA.)

Sometimes I'm really surprised at the things I see. Very asymmetric eyebrows, bizarre lip lines..

And when I check to see who had done it and when, I'm very disappointed when it was done by Maud multiple times and the last time was a year ago.

I mean she must know it's not pretty. Even the client knows it.

So why ?

We use what is called the stroke technique when tattooing eyebrows. It's done line by line to imitate real hair. My technique differs from Maud's, she does very strict lines (left) when I prefer a "hairier" effect (right). Like so.

Lady Left has real eyebrow hair whereas Lady Right does not. Impressive, huh?

So the reason I had to write about this is due to the fact that I had a client today who had done her eyebrows at our place 5 years ago (not by Môd, by a girl who no longer works with us*), resulting to a complete massacre of her face.

*lucky for her, I probably would've strangled her.

She didn't have any eyebrows to begin with which of course makes it easier to realize any harmonious shape imaginable.

She had too STRAIGHT fat blocks for eyebrows. They weren't even symmetrical. There was NOTHING aesthetic about them. I just stared at them until I could stop myself from asking if madame had ever thought of using laser treatment to get rid of them and to start anew.

She told me that when she had asked for another shape, the beautician had told her that it was IMPOSSIBLE to tattoo another shape ! BEFORE she had started the tattooing part !

(We draw the shape first with a make-up pen, then choose the color - all of this WITH the client. We don't do ANYTHING until she is sure of what she wants and happy about the design.)

I was REALLY angry.

I felt like crying when I had to retattoo the same fucking horrible stain on her brows.

I felt I should've been apologizing, begging for forgiveness, screaming to make it stop and go away.

Just before I had created something beautiful. Now I was forced to imitate ugliness.

I don't get easily shaken up, but this made me lose my nerve.

How can somebody do something so ugly when you're supposed to be capable of doing beautiful things ?! How can you live with it?! Why continue when you know it's not your expertise ??

Sorry for ranting, but I had to get it off my chest.