Under the needle for beauty's sake

photo from the Honolulu Adviser

No, I'm not talking about botox or any other insidious anti-aging serums that thirty-something starlets head to Switzerland to partake of. I'm talking about something I'd never really encountered before an acquaintance of mine starting rubbing her dark, well-groomed eyebrows vigorously as we were chatting over coffee.

"I've got to get them done again soon..." she muttered.
"What? Your nails?" I asked, all innocence.
"No, these." She pointed to her arched brows.
"What, you need to get them plucked? Waxed? Threaded?" I ventured.
"No. Tattooed."

Huh. Now, I've heard distant tales of women going under the tattooist's needle to permanently imprint their favourite cosmetic embellishments onto their faces...but I'd never actually seen the evidence in person. My friend's eyebrows were quite nice, and perfectly arched - but then again, she has black hair, and the dark brows matched her look. She used to be a blonde, and heaven knows what she'll do should she ever decide to go back.

This is my key point of contention with the whole idea. You can't go back. At least, you can't go back without an enormous amount of pain, effort, and cash. Imagine - there you are, in the height of the eighties, rockin' out your electric blue liquid liner and the streaks of bubble-gum blush across your cheekbones. "Hey," you think to yourself, admiring your own genius, "why don't I spend an hour getting semi-permanent ink shot under my skin by tiny, jabbing needles so I never need to spend an hour getting ready in the morning again?"

Weeelllll...as the eighties gave way to the nineties, and the new millenium took wing, I'm sure that in retrospect that flash of brilliance has faded - just as (hopefully), the permanent blue liner and shocking pink blush has.

Being stuck in the past isn't the only adverse effect of permanent makeup. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine (Straetemans & Marmur, 2007) discovered that a number of women were experiencing negative medical reactions to these treatments - suffering allergic reactions, infections, and developing lumpy, bumpy keloid scars.

Now, here's another thing: as much as it would be nice to roll out of bed on Monday morning and not have to spend any significant amount of time prettifying, do you really want to roll out of bed every morning with your eyeliner on and your lipstick perfectly applied? Do you want to look the same eating a bowl of cereal in your pj's as you do in your power suit at an interview? Do you want to always be primped to perfection? Imagine going camping, or simply waking up beside your beloved on a lazy Sunday morning - with your inevitable mask of makeup on.

There are some cases where I think the procedure is justified and can produce great results. Some women, for example, don't have the mobility or strength necessary to do their makeup every morning. And frankly, I've seen some impressive inked-on eyebrows in my time, and they almost make me jealous.

But really, is it worth it to go under the needle for most women? Frankly, I'll spend the ten minutes it takes to throw on some blush, gloss and liner in the mornings and skip the ink.