Show Notes
Billy sits down with a guest who trained as a permanent makeup artist after her own lip blush tattoo went wrong, leaving her with patchy, purple lips and a coral touch-up that faded to reveal black, yellow and orange underneath. They walk through why saturated pigment and cover-up attempts create bigger problems, how the texture of her lips changed, and what the removal process looked like from the test spot onward.
Topics Covered
Why the lip blush went wrong in the first place
The guest asked for a soft peachy colour but ended up with dark, patchy lips where some pigment retained deep and other spots fell out. The result looked bruised and purple rather than the natural tint she wanted.
Why adding more colour makes it worse
A coral shade was placed over the dark base to conceal it, and it looked good at first, but the darker pigment eventually won and showed through. Cover-up attempts tend to look chalky and oversaturated, and they make lip blush removal much harder, especially with a yellow layer underneath.
Start light rather than pack in pigment
Billy explains that it is always better to begin with less colour and add more later than to over-saturate and leave no way back. A smooth canvas gives far more room to correct or build on.
How saturated pigment changed the texture of the lips
Heavy pigment and repeated swelling left the lips feeling thick, wrinkled and stripped of their elasticity. The guest found that laser tattoo removal actually brought relief, as if lifting the heavy pigment let the skin recover.
Why test spots help but do not guarantee the outcome
A test spot on one area of a lip or brow shows how the skin might respond, but tattoos are rarely saturated consistently across the whole area. Billy is careful to set expectations so clients understand a good test result is a guide, not a promise.
Working slowly through permanent makeup removal
Billy took a slow, cautious approach and kept the guest updated at every step. That steady pace and clear communication helped her stay calm through the removal.
Full Transcript
I've had my lips tattooed for I'd say about a year. Like when they first got tattooed, I was not a permanent makeup artist yet. This was before I was a permanent makeup artist.
Can I ask you a question? Why did you decide to get lip blush tattoo in the first place? Did you have some type of issue with your lips as they were before?
Actually, no. But so many, many years I found this page where they were doing lip blush now. In that time, it was like very new. Barely anybody did it and I just fell in love because I don't like wearing makeup.
But I do like to wear lips, but my lips somehow never retain any color, which I think is pretty general problem for any lady. So, I just wanted to keep lip blush and then it's like I keep postponing and I keep postponing it because it's it can be quite costly if you're not ready. " And then I when I got it done and at that moment when I got it done, I didn't know that it's not supposed to look like that. " And it was just like really purple and very um like with bruises and things.
Later, I found out that you told me, "Oh, no, those are pockets of a lot of ink. " Remember?
I do remember you came in and you had quite patchy lips and they were dark in some spots and not dark in the other spots. So, what I'm thinking may have happened is the pigment was put in and not all of it retained. Some of it was maybe a little bit deeper, more saturated and then other spots were not and it kind of fell out. But it left you with like a bruised kind of purpley looking lip.
Yeah.
Now, was was the goal with adding that type of color? Was it to try to neutralize some pigment that was already put in or was it to try to darken your lips up?
Yeah, no. So, I asked for a normal peachy color. Now, I'm a permanent makeup artist now and I still don't understand what happened or what she tried to do. Obviously, it was the wrong ink for what I was asking for.
Um but, I truly think it was just too much in that same spot. So, I just kept going deeper. Maybe the ink had too much black in it, too much white in it. And then, I went back and I did you know, she tried to fix it, but it just adds more to the mess.
Mhm.
So, I would suggest if something like that happens to anybody like me, don't add more to the problem. You just come and get it lasered off.
That's what I normally recommend as well, but it's hard because we're in the business of removing tattoos.
Yeah.
So, when people hear that, sometimes they're like, "Oh, you just want to get us in there to
Absolutely not.
get some business.
It's better to start light and then you can add more, which is what I always tell my clients. It's always better to have like a nice smooth canvas and later you can add more color rather than pack too much color in and then there's no way back.
So, you got lip blush tattooed and you immediately didn't like it, but you thought okay, I'm going to go back, get a touch-up, and hopefully we can correct the problem with this second session. And then, after that second session, what happened exactly? Did you go home, look in the mirror, and were you even more disappointed than you were?
Actually, immediately after it looked like the problem was solved. It looked so pretty, but then eventually that color that was put on top of that purple, it just was gone.
So, it was a lighter color that was used to hopefully conceal that darker color?
Yeah, I think so. And then but eventually that black just kept popping up and now it's like black with yellow, orange. So, it's just a big mess.
I remember you came in with a coral color.
Yeah.
And if you put a coral over top of a dark purple or any type of black, it may look good right away. And that's usually what happens in tattooing. It'll look good right away, but over time that darker color will just win. It just shows through that lighter color and there's no chance that that light color is going to defeat the darker.
It happens with a lot of artists with brows. They try to do a cover up. It's just not going to stay. It's not going to look good.
It's going to look chalky, overdone, oversaturated and it's going to be really, really, really hard to remove. Especially with a yellow underneath. Like you have another problem. I'm talking talking about the yellow.
Mhm.
It's like impossible.
Yeah, it is. So, we know what happened with the color of your lips. Now, what about the texture of your lips? Did that change when you got lip blush tattooed as well?
It did.
And what happened exactly with your texture?
It did some My lips used to look youthful and more full.
Youthful?
Yeah, youthful.
I think that's Let me translate that into That was your Cuban Cuban English coming through. That would be translated to youthful.
I thought of my English.
That's okay. That's okay. So, you had youthful looking lips before.
Yes.
And then when you got them tattooed, did it change the texture?
Yeah, so because they got swollen so, so much the first time she tattooed them, they just lost all of their elasticity and instead they just wrinkled, and because there was so much ink, it went to the to that chalky, heavy I don't even know how to explain it, but it was just like really thick skin. Like nothing would make them hydrated, nothing would make them soft until I started getting laser, and then that it was almost like a relief to the lips. I think all that ink was just so heavy that was holding on to the skin of the lips.
Okay. So, you came in, and and let's just kind of let the listeners know the process.
That's exactly what you said.
Yeah. And then, did we do a test spot? Normally, I do recommend when people come in with lip blush that we do a test spot.
Yeah.
The one thing about test spots, and I have explained this in previous episodes, is that just because you do a test spot in one area of a tattoo, even if it's an eyebrow or lip, that doesn't mean that the whole lip was tattooed consistently that way or the brow.
You explained that as well.
So, that's where I always get a little nervous with um permanent makeup removal, even when you come in like that situation. Yeah, we can do a test spot or even two spots, but that doesn't mean that it's consistently tattooed all the way through.
result. Yeah, it's true.
Yeah. Yeah, so so you're not going to know what is definitely going to happen. It may give you a good idea, but it doesn't mean that that's definitely going to be the outcome in the entire lip.
It's true.
But we did the test spot and everything seemed okay.
Yeah. " So you were very careful, very slow, and then you just kept updating me on what was happening. And thankfully everything went really well, but it it made me very calm that you knew exactly.