Start with a preliminary visit to the clinic or aesthetician or tattoo artist of your choice and look at eyebrow tattoo pictures and get them to draw the possibilities on your face. If you like the shape, trace it onto a stencil. One cosmetic tattoo professional I went to used a very soft crayon/pencil to outline what I wanted and when we arrived at the perfect style, she had me press my face onto a piece of onion skin paper to leave the silhouette. When I arrived a week later for my appointment, she knew exactly what shape to draw by laying the onion skin cutouts on my face and tracing them. My brows and liner turned out perfectly.
The color choice is bit trickier because cosmetic eyebrow tattooing pigments change over time and fade or alter based on your natural skin tones, your lifestyle, the sun, how you cleanse your skin and how many touch ups you had after the original procedure. Try to stay away from cleansing products and creams that contain alpha-hydroxy acid since they alter the color and sometimes make the tattoo fade faster.
Your color choices for eyebrow tattoos and liner include: henna, auburn, dark brown, black, grey, blue and bluish-purple (if you want permanent dramatic). Most fair skinned women select light brown or henna and this can be a mistake. Unless you are a redhead you want to neutralize the red tones with a little blue or black even if you are fair.
It’s better to have your eyeliner fade to grey than to a pinky-ginger tone and it’s better to have slightly darker brows than to have vibrant carroty color ones. Ask for the pigments to be blended and not used pure, unless you have black hair then go with pure black or red hair go with henna, otherwise BLEND!
I’m thinking about doing the eyebrow tattoo. I have red hair and blond brows. My concern is what does the color of my natural brows do to the color (obviously darker than my own) of the tattoo? Will I still have to dye the blond brows?
Dear Nancy,
Thank you for the excellent question regarding your natural hair color after having an eyebrow tattoo. Eyebrow tattooing alone does not affect your natural hair color. You may still have to dye your brows from time to time if your hair is darker than your brows, which in your case is true. However, because of the tattoo being darker below the blond brow hairs, it isn’t as important to tint the hairs as it may have been previous to the tattoo. You will have the illusion of darker brows even if the fine blond hairs are almost invisible. But…for flawless natural looking brows, I do recommend that you have your blond brow hair tinted from time to time – once every two months (if you don’t swim) should do the trick. If you haven’t already done so, I do touch on this problem a little in the article: Permanent Make Up – Is it Right for You?
Here is the quote: “For women who have naturally light hair, highlights or bleached hair, or who do not maintain the same exact shade of hair color from month to month or year to year, may want to go with a darker brow pigment for the initial eyebrow tattooing procedure and then slightly bleach the natural brow hair from time to time to match the tone of the most recent coiffure.” (In your case don’t bleach them but give a little auburn tint)
Thank you writing and please let me know how your eyebrow tattoo turns out. If you want to send a pic, that would be fabulous!
Happy Tattooing
Nena