Touch-up or Refresh with a New Artist, Removal and Cover-up Processes
1. LET'S CALL IT CORRECTLY. IT'S NOT A TOUCH-UP, IT'S NOT A REFRESH. IT'S COVER-UP!
3. IN WHICH CASES YOUR WORK CAN'T BE COVERED
5. YOUR PLAN IF WE CAN COVER YOUR WORK:
7. YOUR PLAN IF WE CAN'T COVER-UP YOUR WORK
9. LASER OR NON-LASER REMOVALS
11. MICROBLADING REMOVALS AND FOLOWING COVER-UPS ARE ESPECIALLY COMPLICATED
2. YOUR PREVIOUS TATTOOING IS NOT HELPFUL. IT COMPLICATES AND COMPROMISES A NEW WORK
4. COVER-UP INVOLVES AT LEAST THE SAME QUANTITY OF SESSIONS AND COSTS LIKE A NEW WORK.
6. PLEASE SEND US YOUR PHOTOS TO KNOW IF WE CAN BOOK YOUR TATTOOING
8. HOW MANY REMOVAL SESSIONS ARE REQUIRED
10. IS REMOVAL PAINFUL? WHAT'S ABOUT DOWN-TIME? CAN I APPLY MAKE-UP?
12. WHAT IF I FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL SIMPLY TOUCH-UP MY WORK?
First of all
1. LET'S CALL IT CORRECTLY.
IT'S NOT TOUCH-UP,
IT'S NOT REFRESH.
IT'S COVER-UP!
If you request a touch-up or refresh procedure having an existing work performed by another artist, please view what we mean under each name:
The initial session – is a cosmetic tattooing on the clean skin.
Touch-up – is a perfecting session, this is the first procedure performed with understanding how your skin reacts on a trauma and pigment, the main session for cosmetic/paramedic tattoo artist.
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Additional Touch-up – is a perfecting session, required in case of presence of negative factors for good healing (health conditions, medications, skin issues such as inflammation and scarring).
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Refresh – is a colour boost session after you wore your PMU work for a few months.
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Cover-up – is a cosmetic tattooing over existing pigment, placed by another artist, it may include colour & shape correction, which is more complex than like a new work and involves the same quantity of sessions or more and the same or higher cost than the new work does.
Let's check
3. IN WHICH CASES YOUR WORK CAN'T BE COVERED
Your work can be 100% covered if you see a hint of color and light fog instead of any solid shape. In all other cases removals may be required with a high probability, for example in the next cases:
Obvious unwanted colour: grey, blue, green, red. You can see the obvious tinge which doesn’t look natural.
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Very saturated skin: You can see the shape and colour of your eyebrows, liners, lips etc.
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Well defined edges: Contours of your previous work are visible, they are not fading into a translucent gradient
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Wrong shape which can’t be inscribed into a new shape: If you inscribe your eyebrows into a beautiful 3d shape and something sticks out the shape or in case of shaded works you can’t build a gradient from your shape and the edge of the new work.
At last
5. YOUR PLAN IF WE CAN COVER YOUR WORK:
In this case please book the initial tattooing session and follow the plan below:
* The initial session of cover-up
6-8 weeks interval (about age+10 days)
* Touch-up
6-8 weeks interval (about age+10 days)
* Additional touch-up in complex cases (scars, health conditions, saturated canvas)
(please follow our current prices for each work)
Long but right
7. YOUR PLAN IF WE CAN'T COVER-UP YOUR WORK
In this case please book the laser cosmetic tattoo removal session and follow the plan below:
* Laser/Non-Laser Tattoo Removal
6-8 weeks interval (about age+10 days)
* The Second Laser/Non-Laser Tattoo Removal (usually needed)
6-8 weeks interval (about age+10 days)
* The Third Laser/Non-Laser Tattoo Removal (if required)
6-8 weeks interval (about age+10 days)
More sessions may be required in complex cases (old works, scarring)
* The initial session of cover-up
6-8 weeks interval (about age+10 days)
* Touch-up
6-8 weeks interval (about age+10 days)
* An additional touch-up in complex cases (scars, health conditions, saturated canvas)
(please follow our current prices for each work)
Is there any difference
9. LASER OR NON-LASER REMOVALS
In standard cases, we usually start from laser and finish cleaning the skin with non-laser removal method. Exceptions are cases with "invisible" for laser colours, unwanted colour inversions and health conditions which exclude the load on the lymphatic system.
In some cases, alternating and accurate combining of these two methods is also possible.
Laser Removals are more effective, less traumatic and create more even impact on the skin.
Q-Switched ND-YAG Laser can effectively remove grey, black, dark blue, brown, red and bright orange colors. You can see a partial effect right after procedure however the completed result can be achieved only in 2-6 month after your lymphatic system utilizes the particles of the pigment. The skin surface is not damaged during the procedure however the swelling and light bruising can take place in some cases.
Applying laser removals we rely mostly on the lymphatic system.
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Non-Laser Removals are performed by tattooing special liquid Removers into the skin. Removers may have different chemical environments (acid, alkali, saline, enzyme, alcohol) however the principle of their application will be the same. Non-laser tattoo removals may be beneficial when laser is not effective: in case of white, green, yellow, light orange, light blue, very faded down colours and very “stubborn” cases.
Important to know
12. MICROBLADING REMOVALS AND FOLOWING COVER-UPS ARE ESPECIALLY COMPLICATED
Even a single Microblading session causes life-long skin scarring. Microblading is a cutting technique and as any significant trauma it builds a significant quantity of the connective tissue within its healing. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable and irreversible complication of this method.
Removal: Microblading almost always complicates a removal process because the pigment is literally sealed in the scar tissue and can’t be effectively washed away by lymph after the removal session. In addition, it is usually placed very deeply and in a high concentration, which creates prepositions for more significant and less controllable trauma within both laser and non-laser removal processes.
Cover-up: A following tattooing is also compromised after microblading as the scar tissue doesn’t take the pigment in the same way as the healthy skin does. In some cases, tattooing heals with a weaker colour retention, however in some cases it heals with a stronger, darker and colder shade. In addition, the esthetics may be affected not just with potentially uneven colour, it also looks poor because of unequal skin surface due to scarring.
Not obvious but
2. YOUR PREVIOUS TATTOOING IS NOT HELPFUL.
IT COMPLICATES AND COMPROMISES A NEW WORK
All artists have different levels of experience and education, styles of work, technique, vision of shapes, colours and gradients.
Your “old” work should be significantly corrected to meet new standards in 70-80% cases, which may require full or partial removals, complex colour corrections and a fiddly tattooing over borders of previous works, patches and scars to create even shading and fine gradients.
Not so simple
4. COVER-UP INVOLVES AT LEAST THE SAME QUANTITY OF SESSIONS AND COSTS LIKE A NEW WORK.
The pigment is a foreign body for your skin which responds to cosmetic tattooing in a unique way. Permanent make-up performed with the same method may heal differently on different people. When you come back for your touch- up we have an opportunity to analyze your unique results and apply that technique which will give us the best result. So Touch-up is the main session for any cosmetic tattooist.
The client with an existing tattooing “brings” to the new artist an unknown pigment, unknown technique and unknown skin. The new artist doesn’t know what a chemical composition was used by the previous artist and which method to choose for the most effective cover-up or removal.
So what you call a touch-up is the initial session complicated with a lot of factors. This is why cover-up may require even two touch-up sessions in some cases.
Before any booking
6. PLEASE SEND US YOUR PHOTOS TO KNOW IF WE CAN BOOK YOUR TATTOOING
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Please take your photos only with REAR camera of your phone, no selfies please, they are not informative.
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Take them at the natural day light near the window (no yellow, red or dark photos, please).
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Ask someone to help you as you won’t be able to take these photos without another person.
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Focus your camera on your existing tattooing. In case of eyebrow or eyeliner front look please focus camera on the nose bridge. Your photos should have sharp & crispy quality for us to see a pigment location.
Eyebrows: 2 close-up photos of each eyebrow to check the shape, colour, saturation and depth of the pigment and also we need a front look to check symmetry of your existing work
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Eyeliners: 2 close-up photos of each eyeliner to check the colour, saturation and depth of the pigment, position of flicks, if they were tattooed in “forbidden areas” to work over without any risk and we also need a front look to check symmetry of your existing work.
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Lips: 2 close-up photos from both sides to check the shape colour, saturation and depth of the pigment, position of contours towards lip vermilions , if they were tattooed far over existing shape or too deep in the commissures. We also need a front look to check symmetry of your existing work.
Let's count
8. HOW MANY REMOVAL SESSIONS ARE REQUIRED
In actual reality laser and non-laser removals are not a fast process. You’ll need several removal procedures in approximately 2 months interval (around age + 10 days). It’s impossible to tell an exact quantity of sessions, it depends on many factors such skin type, metabolism rate, age, life style, hormone balance, scarring in treated area, quantity of pigment, its depth and age of tattoo. We can approximately estimate the quantity using Kirby Desai Scale.
To remove average eyebrows for future cover-up we usually perform:
2 laser removal sessions in case of organic pigments and hybrids using new school techniques and superficial and insignificantly scarred microblading
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3 laser sessions in case of mineral pigments and old school techniques and significantly scarred and deep microblading.
Not to be scared
10. IS REMOVAL PAINFUL? WHAT'S ABOUT DOWN-TIME? CAN I APPLY MAKE-UP?
Laser and Non-Laser Removals have different techniques. However the level of discomfort you will feel during the session is approximately the same and can be minimized by using topical anesthetic. After both techniques you wont have any obvious down-time however there are differences in how you treat an affected area after the procedure.
Laser Removals A laser beam doesn't usually break skin integrity except some microblading cases. Swelling may occur but normally it doesn't take longer than 15-60 min. So after Laser Removals, you can take a shower, bash, sauna, swim, apply any cosmetics, make-up and undertake brow tinting. In any case we recommend you to actively massage the affected area with Bepanthen cream. Exclusions are only the cases when due to a very deep location and high concentration of the pigment (microblading or very rough old school works) you may receive micro-puncturing and micro-bruising of the affected area and n this case you need to treat it carefully like after tattooing or Non-Laser Removal.
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Non-Laser Removals are performed by tattooing special liquid Removers into the skin and since it damages skin integrity, we don't recommend to touch this area with hands, swim during scabbing, apply above the scabs any cosmetics or tints. Scabbing is mostly moderate, but it may be significant in some cases. Like after cosmetic tattooing we don't recommend you to peel or pick your scabs to avoid any scaring.
Let's imagine
13WHAT IF I FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL SIMPLY TOUCH-UP MY WORK?
An experienced artists never compromise their reputation by creating doubtful works. If you find someone to cover-up uncoverable work, most likely this will be an unexperienced artist that may create a new shape and colour over an existing one and these layers will be visible one underneath another.
You could see such works in Internet: brow in brow, 2-3 brow tails on each eyebrow, enormously thick and dark eyebrows and eyeliners, 2 eyeliner flicks on one eye, additional lip contours etc. This will definitely bring you to a removal specialist later, increase the quantity of future removal sessions and their cost and also complicate any future cover-ups.