Does microblading hurt?

You will feel it. We are not going to promise you otherwise, because that would be the first thing we got wrong. What we can promise is that we go at your pace, we tell you before we start anything, and you can say stop at any point without explaining yourself. Most people tell us afterwards that the waiting beforehand was the worse part.

Can you get cosmetic tattoos while pregnant?

Start with your own doctor or midwife rather than with us, because that is a question for the person who knows your history. If you are pregnant or nursing, tell us before you book instead of on the day. Nothing is lost by waiting, and we would far rather move an appointment than have you sitting in the chair unsure.

Can I get a beauty tattoo if I have almost no eyebrow left?

Very often, yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people come to us. We map a brow from your bone structure, your features and whatever hair is still there, so having very little to start with changes the approach rather than ruling it out. Come in and we will look properly and give you a straight answer.

Is microblading the only kind of cosmetic tattoo?

No. Microblading is one technique under the wider heading of beauty tattoos, which is permanent makeup: work that enhances what you already have. Which technique suits you depends on your skin and the look you are after, so it is worth asking rather than booking the one word you happen to have heard of. We will talk you through the options.

Do I need a consultation before I can book?

You cannot book the work itself without one, but the conversation can be booked on its own, with nothing else attached to it. Ask for a consultation when you contact us and say roughly what you have in mind. You walk out with a plan you have seen on your own face, and a date only if you want one.

What should I bring to my first cosmetic tattoo appointment?

Photo ID, a couple of pictures of the look you keep coming back to, and the questions you feel silly asking. If you take medication or have something going on with your skin or your health, bring that up too. Come with your face as it normally is rather than done up, because we need to see what we are working with.

Cosmetic Tattoos in Hamilton: The Questions People Are Too Polite to Ask

Most people who ask us about beauty tattoos have been thinking about it for months, and they arrive with a list of questions they are a bit embarrassed to say out loud. Will it hurt. Will I look like somebody else. Am I too old for this, or too bare, or too late. Is it the kind of thing you just walk in and have done.

So here is the whole list, answered plainly. We are a small studio on Barton Street East, and alongside piercings and custom tattoo work we do cosmetic tattoos in Hamilton, which you will also see called beauty tattoos or permanent makeup. Nobody here rolls their eyes at a question, and nobody is going to talk you into anything you were not already curious about.

The first thing to know: it is tattooing

This is the part that surprises people, so we lead with it. A beauty tattoo is permanent makeup: microblading and similar work that enhances what you already have. The method is tattooing. Pigment goes into skin, with a needle, by hand.

We are not saying that to frighten anybody. We say it because almost everything else on this page follows from it. It is why there is an age rule, why we ask about your health before we ask about your Pinterest board, why the room has to be set up the way it is, and why you leave with aftercare instructions rather than a receipt and a wave. People who file cosmetic tattooing next to a lash lift are often relieved to find out it is taken this seriously.

Who beauty tattoos are actually for

There is no impressive reason required. The people who sit in our chair for this tend to be:

Someone whose brows have always been thin, and who has never quite managed the pencil.
Someone who over-plucked in a decade we will not name, and found out the hard way that hair does not always grow back.
Someone with very little brow left at all, for reasons that are theirs and that we do not need the story behind.
Someone with one brow that behaves and one that has opinions.
Someone who simply wants five fewer minutes in the morning, and to stop worrying about rain, the pool or the gym.

That last one comes up more than any of the others, and there is nothing frivolous about it. Wanting your face to look like your face before you have had coffee is a perfectly good reason to book.

Will you still look like you?

This is the real fear underneath most of the emails we get, and it deserves a direct answer. Yes. We work from the face that is actually in front of us rather than drawing a new one onto it.

That means we look at your bone structure, the way your brows already sit, which way the hair grows, how your features balance and what your skin is like, and we shape to that. A brow that is beautiful on someone else's face is often exactly wrong on yours, and the opposite is true too. If you would like to see the sort of work we do before you say anything out loud to anyone, have a scroll through our gallery first and bring in the two or three that keep pulling you back.

Nothing dramatic unless you ask for it

People assume cosmetic tattooing has one setting and that setting is bold. It does not. Soft and barely noticeable is a request we get constantly, and it is a legitimate result, not a lesser one. You are allowed to want something so subtle that nobody in your life ever comments on it. Frankly, that is most people's goal.

You set that dial, and we will tell you honestly what we think will suit you and what we think will fight your features. If what you want and what we would suggest are different, we will say so before anything starts, not after.

What we do about the part you are dreading

Nobody in this shop will tell you that you will feel nothing. That would be the first promise we broke, and we would rather keep every one we make.

What we will tell you is that you are in charge of the pace. We explain what is about to happen before it happens, we stop when you ask, and you never have to justify asking. Wendy has one line she says to every nervous first timer, whatever they are in for: close your eyes, take a deep breath, you are doing great. It works because it is true. The waiting-room version of this in your head is almost always worse than the chair.

Our age rule: 18, or a parent in the room

Our shop policy is 18 or older on your own, and under 18 only with a parent present at the appointment. Bring government photo ID, and if a parent is coming with you, they bring theirs as well.

That is our rule, set by us, and we are not going to dress it up as something we are forced into. It exists because this is tattooing and it is on your face, and because the conversation about whether someone actually wants this is a better conversation to have with a parent in the room. If you are not sure whether the ID you have counts, email us before you make the trip.

Where to get a cosmetic tattoo in Hamilton, and what the shop should look like

This is not a counter service you drop into between errands, and the room matters as much as the artist.

The City of Hamilton's public health requirements for personal service settings put tattoo studios, body piercing shops and places providing permanent make-up services in the same category, and the City says its inspectors check those premises for cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of equipment, maintenance of the facility, and record keeping. Those requirements come from the province's personal service settings regulation, O. Reg. 136/18, which the City names as the regulation behind them.

We mention it because you are allowed to ask about it. Ask any shop what happens to its equipment between clients and watch how comfortable the answer is. A place that does beauty tattoos on the side, in a back room, between other services, is a different proposition from a studio built for this, and you are entitled to know which one you are sitting in. Ours is a small independent shop rather than a factory, and you can read about it on our about page.

Why we ask you slightly nosy questions first

Before we get anywhere near pigment, we will ask about your skin, your health and anything you take regularly. It feels like a lot for a brow appointment. It is not us being difficult.

Part of it is practical: skin behaves differently from person to person and we would rather know in advance. Part of it is that we are not medical people and we will not pretend to be.

If there is something going on with your health, the answer is your own doctor first and us second, and we are perfectly happy to wait for that.

And part of it is required. Hamilton Public Health's rules for personal service settings say that records for invasive services must include:

what procedure was done and where
the date
the name and contact details of the provider
the name and contact details of the client
that the risks of the procedure were explained
the lot numbers and expiry dates of any pre-packaged sterile equipment used

When we walk you through the risks, that is not us being dramatic at you. It is part of the job.

What the appointment is actually like

We are open Wednesday to Saturday, 1:30 to 5, and it is appointments only. That is deliberate. A small shop with a booked appointment means one person has time to look at your face properly instead of squeezing you between two other things.

Nervous first timers are not a problem for us; they are most of our week. If you want a sense of how we handle somebody who is anxious walking in, our guide to choosing a piercing in Hamilton describes the same approach on the piercing side: look first, mark it, show you the mark, wait for you to say yes. Different service, identical manners.

Why we start with a conversation rather than a needle

Every beauty tattoo here starts with a consultation, and this is the one part people try to skip. Do not skip it.

It is where we see your features in real light instead of in a phone photo, hear what you are actually after in your own words, and map a shape onto you so you can look at it in a mirror before anything permanent happens. You get to say "lower", "thinner", "not that" as many times as you need to. You also get to leave, think about it for a month, and come back, and quite a few people do exactly that. A consultation is not a commitment and we do not treat it as one. It is the step that makes the difference between a result you love and a result you tolerate.

Ask us the question you have been sitting on

If you read this far, one of these sections was yours. Whatever the question is, we have heard it, we have heard it asked in a whisper, and it is not silly. Book an appointment and tell us what you have been thinking about, or just send the question first and get a straight answer back before you commit to anything at all.