Billy DeCola's Online Saline Removal Course is open now at Studio Kiku Academy. It teaches saline tattoo removal for permanent makeup, and you take it from anywhere, at your own pace.
The course is 28 video lessons and runs a little over three hours. Close to two hours of that is four live demonstrations on real clients.
Why saline removal
Laser tattoo removal does not work on every pigment. More and more permanent makeup (PMU) pigments are mixed with white or carry a high concentration of yellow, and those undertones stop responding. The client is left with yellow brows that the laser will not move.
Saline removal is the other tool. A saline solution is tattooed into the skin with a machine and a needle. It is a manual removal, it is not a fast process, and it asks for a light hand.
Billy does both. He teaches saline as the step after laser has been tried and has stopped working, and he shows the exceptions.
What the course covers
The course runs in seven modules, and each one builds on the one before it:
- An introduction to saline removal: how it works, when to use it and when not to, the risks, bloodborne pathogens and realistic expectations
- Pigment theory: particle size, organic and inorganic pigments, and the colours that resist the laser
- Equipment and supplies: machines and stroke length, needles, expendables and setting up your station
- The consultation, including a full mock consultation for a client with yellow brows
- Technique: client positioning, stretching the skin, controlling depth and application
- Four live demonstrations
- Aftercare, and a lesson on bringing saline removal into the practice you already have
Four demonstrations on real clients
Three brow sessions and one lip blush session, each on a real client. You watch the setup, the stretch, the passes and the aftercare talk, and you hear what Billy is thinking while he works.
- Demo 1: brows with yellow and some red left after laser
- Demo 2: yellow brows that stopped responding to laser
- Demo 3: a second saline session, six months after the first
- Demo 4: the lower lip line, with no laser first
Honest about what saline can do
Saline removal is not 100 percent. It works well in some cases and not at all in others, and the course says so. One lesson is about realistic expectations and how to be honest with a client about them. The most common mistake is overworking the skin, and the method in the course implants the saline and lets it do the job, so the skin is not scarred.
Who it is for
The course is made for PMU artists, scalp micropigmentation artists and tattooers who already work with skin. If you have not worked with needles and skin, lesson 5 recommends a bloodborne pathogens certification before you work on anyone.
Who teaches it
Billy DeCola has tattooed professionally since 2009. He started his career at the Miami Ink Tattoo Studio in Miami Beach and appeared on TLC's "NY Ink". He now owns Studio Kiku, and after years of laser tattoo removal he saw that laser does not work on every pigment or in every case. Saline removal is how he treats what it leaves behind, and the course teaches the method he uses on his own clients.
Students can reach Billy by email or DM with questions after the course.
What is included
- 28 video lessons, a little over three hours
- Four live demonstrations on real clients
- Watch at your own pace
- One year of access from the date you enrol
- A certificate of completion
You can enrol on the Online Saline Removal Course at Studio Kiku Academy. The full curriculum, a course preview video and answers to common questions are on the saline removal training page.
Thanks for reading.