Messed up permanent make up

Hi everyone, you all have my sympathy as I am going through exactly the same thing. I had my eyebrows done in 2004 and it has totally wrecked my life, the stupid woman insisted on going "freestyle" (she must have thought she was v.talented even though I was v.particular about what I wanted) and she made a total mess, they were completely different shapes, heights and lengths, and even colours! My left was dark brown and my right reddy-brown, even thought the ink came out of the same pot?!?! Anyway up til now I have spent approx.£500 trying in vain to remove them with various products, treatments and cover-up stuff. Here is some advice about what not to use: 1. Tattoo-fade creams - total scam and their active ingredient Hydroquinone merely fades melanin, natural skin pigment, and there has also been some concern over its safety. 2. Rejuvi/E-Raze removal (tattooing a substance into the skin to bring out the pigment) - this was the worst experience of my life, I had to cut out all my eyebrow hair to get the huge green/black scabs off my face, hardly any pigment was removed and one of my eyebrows is still slightly scarred from the treatment. I went for one session of laser tattoo removal with an Nd-YAG laser and it wasn't bad at all and removed the pigment in one session, however the doctor would only treat a tiny bit in case it damaged the eyebrow hair. However, since then, I have been weighing up the pros and cons and I have decided that losing the ends of my natural eyebrows and having to draw them in is better than having these insults permanently stuck to my face! I have totally mastered the art of covering them up but I don't want to have to hide them for the rest of my life - it just makes me miserable. Anyway good news is I have a consultation for more laser next week - I am so excited at the thought of getting my life back! :) I will keep you all posted on how it goes. K x

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Guest or K x, I read about Nd-YAG laser but there are so many of them. What specific type of laser are they using on your eyebrows. I read up on some lasers and it said that some lasers only fade a specific type of color. My doctor is using Erbium laser, I wonder if you are using another type. Tell me what you skin looks like after the session and the weeks after. I'm curious to know if there is a better laser out there. Thanks!

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Hi Milly, from what I have read the Erbium laser doesn't sound suitable for tattoo removal - Q-switched lasers are the preferred types of laser for removing tattoos as they do not damage the surrounding skin, they target the tattoo pigment and shatter it so your body can remove the smaller pieces. There are 3 types, Nd-YAG, Alexandrite and Ruby, depending on the colour of your tattoo. The Erbium laser you are using sounds like it uses a similar method to dermabrasion, by removing layers of your skin to get to the ink which is very deep - that would explain why your skin is so red! I will ask at my consultation which lasers they are going to use and I will let you know. x

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Strange, I had my eyebrows permanently done about two days ago and I thought they came out fine but after two day my right eyebrow started to scab and I was able to completely peel it off and it looks like I had nothing done. Not sure if its because I wasnt taking proper care of it or what. My left eyebrow is fine though, I guess I have to go back in a couple of weeks to get the right side redone! v_v

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You are not suppose to remove the scabs that form. By doing it, you took the ink with the scab. When you get it redone, allow the scabs to fall off on its own. Talk to the person that is doing your permanent make-up. Sometimes they don't tell you and that's why you make mistakes.

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I am also a Victim of the whole eyebrow tattoo-ing. I just have one question: After laser treatment Do the eyebrow hairs grow back? I had very light eyebrows to begin with (which is why I had them done) And i would hate to look like a Freak with NO eyebrows! If that is going to be the case I'd rather just leave them. Please Help!!

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Hi Sophie, sorry to hear you're suffering too, awful isn't it! Shame you didn't dye your natural eyebrows instead if they were decent ones. Mine were dark but were sparse at the end which is why I made the fatal decision. So far I have only had about a cm of laser done (if you saw my previous post the doctor wouldn't do any more in case it damaged the hair), but I have closely inspected the area and there are 2 hairs growing out of the bit that was removed, so they obviously survived the treatment! When I go for my consultation for more laser at a different place tomorrow I will ask about the whole hair thing and will let you know what they say. K x

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Hi Kathryn! I'm sorry I took so long to answer you back but I wanted to speak to my doctor before answering your comment. I had read about Q-switch lasers before I went to my doctor and started the process. My eyebrows were a light brown color and that made me a bit concerned. I had read on the internet that when the color is flesh looking, Q-switch lasers can turn the color to black. These lasers work well if you tattoo is a primary color (black, blue, red, etc...) and mine was not. My doctor recommended Erbium laser because it was the only option to the color and area of the tattoo. Erbium laser is not exactly dermabrasion. Even though they both remove layers of skin, the procedure is very different. Dermabrasion is done with a scapel tool that scrapes of the skin. Erbium laser is a laser that precisely burns your layers of skin, minimizing your risk to scar.

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Yeah I know what dermabrasion is, I was just likening the eroding effect to that of the Erbium laser. Shame you couldn't use Q-switched lasers. When I was considering whether to get my tattoos removed or camoflaged with skin-colour pigment I decided against the latter because of what I'd read about the pigment turning black under laser (in case that went wrong as well and I needed it removed!). Arrgh stupid permanent makeup it should be banned, think we should start a petition! I went for my consultation today to have my tattoos removed my laser (they are going to use the Q-switched Nd-YAG laser because my the brown pigment is made up of red and blue), if all is well I should be getting it done in a couple of weeks. I can't wait! I feel so much better already even though I haven't had any treatment yet lol :) x

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I'm glad that you'll be getting it off soon. This has been such a traumatizing event for me. I don't know what I was thinking. We should form a petition against it. I'm completely against getting a tattoo after what I'm going through. Let me know how everything goes after your treatment. How did they figure out that it was made up of red and blue? Well, good luck!!!

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