You'll never have to apply makeup again

July 1, 2004 3:10 PM

Permanent Makeup. Look like yourself, only better!

Many of Nancy Ruth's clients are tired of applying eyebrow pencil day after day. Or they don't want their eyeliner to smear every time they cry at a movie or rub their eyes.
posted by fizz-ed (33 comments total)

First FPP - be gentle.

I'm not a woman and don't wear makeup, but the idea of permanent makeup just seems wrong to me. What about trends and fashion? Would you really want to have the same makeup that you had tattooed onto your face in 1984 when you were the world's biggest Pat Benatar fan?

Also, why does Nancy Ruth look so frightened?
posted by fizz-ed at 3:16 PM on July 1, 2004

posted by elpapacito at 3:21 PM on July 1, 2004

yeah, you definitely want someone with a nice sense of subtlety and timelessness to apply that stuff. just like nancy there.
posted by badstone at 3:31 PM on July 1, 2004

I saw a woman who'd had this done. It looked...mostly really bad. Like a tattoo, on one's face. not good at all.

The "permanent lipstick" was interesting, but I couldn't help but think that a tattoo needle on one's lips would hurt to the point where mere mortals would pass out.

I never wear makeup of any sort, anyhow, so the idea doesn't interest me. But considering the lengths some women will go to for beauty nowadays, this isn't even a particularly scary procedure. Just ugly.
posted by u.n. owen at 3:33 PM on July 1, 2004

Nope, nope nope nope nope.

Permanent makeup has been around for awhile, I've never met anyone who has it, or has even considered it.

It just seems wrong. Likely, because it is wrong.
posted by Salmonberry at 3:35 PM on July 1, 2004

2 words--Tammy Faye
posted by amberglow at 3:36 PM on July 1, 2004

If you are going to post an image, please do not post a huge one that totally dominates the thread. Thank you.

To keep this on topic: I suspect that woman's had a few facelifts. Either that, or someone is goosing her.
posted by MegoSteve at 3:39 PM on July 1, 2004

This has been around for at least a dozen years. And I've heard that permanent eyelining at least is extremely painful.
posted by orange swan at 3:39 PM on July 1, 2004

From the faq:

IS IT PAINFUL?

While you may feel touch and pressure your procedure should be well worth any mild discomfort you experience. Permanent cosmetics procedures are of a skin invasive nature and therefore you may experience some discomfort. This may vary according to each individual's pain threshold. There are topical anesthetic creams used to control the discomfort.

Some discomfort? Judging by the expression in her pic, she's still experiencing it.
posted by haqspan at 3:46 PM on July 1, 2004

My mother had this done a year or two ago, as part of being a guinea pig for her job. She had the eyeliner and the lipstick done. The lipstick faded away very quickly.

However, the eyeliner stayed, and I think it looks great on her. You can barely tell that my mother had anything done - it's very thin, very well-done (very much unlike how thick the picture on the website portrays) - and it saves her time in the morning from putting on eyeliner and (as she always did) mess it up.
posted by GirlFriday at 3:46 PM on July 1, 2004

My old landlord had the eyeliner procedure done. I guess you're supposed to do a little test spot first. She didn't and it turns out that she was allergic to the ink. Her eyes looked much worse once they healed up.
posted by jackmakrl at 3:49 PM on July 1, 2004

my freind april had eyeliner permanently tatooed on. Of course she's also pushing thirty-five and wearing a purple pageboy, so she might not be the best aesthetic judge.And when she gets old she's gonna look spooky I imagine.

Vanity, thy name is youth, and middle age, and old age.

God I'm glad I'm an ugly man, thus freeing me from all this bullshit.
posted by jonmc at 3:49 PM on July 1, 2004

Well, it's a sign that tatooing has been assimilated into the cultural mainstream and is therefore no longer hip. Time to invest heavily in laser tatoo removal companies.
posted by gregor-e at 3:55 PM on July 1, 2004

Henna (aka Hennè)tatoo is the only temporary tatoo that I know about.

According to this article on tatoo removal most dermatologic surgeons caution that complete tattoo removal is not possible. Tattoos are meant to be permanent, so removing them is difficult. Few surgeons guarantee complete removal.

So what happens the day you become bored of your permanent makeup ? I can only see people with -real problems- (allergy/facial injuries/etc) taking tatoo in consideration, expecially on face like the Maori above
posted by elpapacito at 4:06 PM on July 1, 2004

My mom had the eyebrow tattoo done a few years ago. I don't know. Not the greatest.

And really, how lazy do you have to be? As for changing styles... I shouldn't talk. I've had the same haircut the last 5 years.

Oh, and GirlFriday... what job does your mother have that she had to get herself permanently made up...?
posted by danny the boy at 4:20 PM on July 1, 2004

Like plastic surgery, if permanent make-up stands out it was done badly.
posted by small_ruminant at 4:29 PM on July 1, 2004

It's pretty frightening that people would live a life where they (a) MUST continue applying makeup all day long and (b) live so busily that they don't have time to actually do that within their normal schedules.

Note that I'm a motorcyclist on Los Angeles highways, and at least twice a month someone applying makeup while driving does something that I need to avoid very quickly.

This might work well for the woman I saw at the laundromat this past Sunday, who was doing 3 loads of family laundry, yet was dressed and made up as if she were going to a fancy dinner party, or was appearing as "una estrella de la novela." Highly incongruous when everyone else was in grubby "laundry day" look and clothes.

*Sigh* silly monkeys.
posted by zoogleplex at 5:09 PM on July 1, 2004

I got sick of all the "Error 404: face not found" messages I would get while applying my mascara. That's why I get all my permanent makeup tattooing done at 404face.
posted by dogwelder at 5:20 PM on July 1, 2004

Gross.
posted by Quartermass at 5:31 PM on July 1, 2004

why does Nancy Ruth look so frightened?

Frightened, or frightening?
Actually, she kinda looks like my mother-in-law, which would be the lead in to a Les Dawson joke, if it wasn't just a throwaway comment...
posted by inpHilltr8r at 5:39 PM on July 1, 2004

This has been around for at least a dozen years

Far longer than that. Revolting Bodies: The Monster Beauty of Tattooed Women mentions 'the extravagant lengths used to tattoo women in beauty salons [in the early 20th century] while not telling them that they were being tattooed ...Advertising never spoke of tattoos, but instead of "complexion treatments" using a "mechanical process" that was "medically supervised. Once a woman was at the salon, a "doctor" would describe the procedure of "injecting vegetable dyes under the top layer of skin." Thus placated, and without tattooing ever being mentioned, the woman would be led to the tattooist...'
posted by raygirvan at 6:24 PM on July 1, 2004

I knew a young woman who had permanent lipliner. She had to apply lipgloss constantly so it wouldn't look like them strange clownmouths at dogwelders 404face link.
I also remember seeing a movie from the 30s demonstrating permanent makeup on some poor model who looked very uncomfortable as they 'applied' her "natural looking glow"-rouge. Hard to tell how good that job was as the film was black and white and vaseline-lensed.
posted by dabitch at 6:28 PM on July 1, 2004

Actually, looking at the Nancy Ruth site, I see nothing much has changed, with the t-word mentioned only in the fine print at the bottom.
posted by raygirvan at 6:31 PM on July 1, 2004

On the upside, those who were lucky enough to get this in the 80s when it first came out will be coming back into fashion.
Crack out the neon
posted by isol at 6:52 PM on July 1, 2004

Also, why does Nancy Ruth look so frightened?

Why does Nancy Ruth look so much like the love child of Judy Tenuta and a blow-up doll?
posted by ChrisTN at 7:16 PM on July 1, 2004

*choking* *sputtering* ChrisTN, you owe me a keyboard!
posted by zoogleplex at 9:41 PM on July 1, 2004

cool article, raygirvan.
posted by ubersturm at 9:48 PM on July 1, 2004

Those of us who watch "Starting Over" are pretty sure Lynnell on that show has permanent eyeliner. She looks like a lemur.
posted by GaelFC at 9:53 PM on July 1, 2004

This link is hilariously tacky and I liked reading it. The photo is too perfect.

The whole endless makeup thing seems weird sometimes if you live in San Francisco where makeuplessness is so well evolved or in New York where styles change rapidly. I do bet someone is getting a permanent Pat Benetar right this moment (and who is to say this tatooee's taste is short-sighted and not exquisite).

I think the endless makeup thing is not that weird, especially for a certain segment of the population of women in the US, for whom the option of appearing daily without full makeup is not discussed much, and for whom ten years of wearing exactly the same face is a reassuring sign of stability -- and pretty likely tattoos or no.

It is also not that weird if you KNOW you're going to want DANZIG FOREVER tattooed on your forehead for how long well come on let's read the forehead FOREVER. Sometimes you just know.
posted by damehex at 10:05 PM on July 1, 2004

On a different note...
I read an article about this some months back in the Albany times Union. One of the women interviewed had MS, and hadn't been able to effectively apply makeup for a number of years. She described how she was fairly depressed at her lack of ability to effectively groom herself, and how makeup was not really all that important, but that she always felt like she looked sick and unkempt. For her, at least, this kind of thing afforded her an opportunity to look and feel presentable and pretty again.
posted by oflinkey at 10:30 PM on July 1, 2004

*Judytenuta.com announces eleven hits in three-hour span, eclipsing previous record of three.*
posted by trharlan at 10:46 PM on July 1, 2004

Would you really want to have the same makeup that you had tattooed onto your face in 1984 when you were the world's biggest Pat Benatar fan?

What? Is that look out now? Damn you kids...
posted by dejah420 at 2:49 PM on July 2, 2004

why does Nancy Ruth look so frightened?

Frightened, or frightening?

Um, both?
posted by orange swan at 8:06 PM on July 2, 2004