At a glance of any social media feed, it’s likely you will see an influencer or salon sharing snaps of their flawless cosmetic tattoo procedures.
And while many swear by it, others have had unpleasant experiences.
One of those is Australian YouTuber and beauty guru, Stephanie Lange, who recently opened up about her own cosmetic tattoo ‘horror story’ to warn women what can happen if they don’t do enough research beforehand.
Stephanie, who is now based in Ireland, said she had her eyebrows and lips tattooed a few years ago after seeing some before and after photos on Instagram.
Stephanie Lange recently opened up about her own cosmetic tattoo ‘horror story’ to warn women what can happen if they don’t do enough research beforehand
Stephanie said she had over-plucked her brows as a teen so the procedure seemed like a wonderful idea – despite it being quite expensive to have done
‘A lot of people that I know have gone to the same place and they’ve had really good results so maybe it’s just me,’ Stephanie, 29, said in her video.
‘I’m making this video as a word of caution so you know what to look out for and maybe make you think twice about getting it done or to give you a heads up – this is how mine turned out so it doesn’t always look how they advertise it.’
Stephanie said she had over-plucked her brows as a teen so the procedure seemed like a wonderful idea – despite it being quite expensive to have done.
‘It used to take me so long to put my make up on and I saw on Instagram that there was this new thing coming out that was eyebrow tattooing but it was feather stroke eyebrows,’ she said.
Pictured is Stephanie’s brow after the ‘black’ look had faded after two weeks and left a ginger, faded ink behind her brows
Stephanie’s lips tattoo also faded and left an unusual colour and thick red over-drawn lines behind
‘I started Googling where I could get it done and I found a salon that looked amazing. All their eyebrows looked so good and natural and fluffy and the colours looked amazing – they looked so real and lifelike.
‘I came across a picture of someone who had their lips tattooed on as well and I naturally have super super pale pink lips.’
Stephanie thought it was a great idea so she saved for six months for the $2,000 worth of tattoos and was excited when the day finally came around.
‘They said [what I wanted] could be done and she said she could do over-drawing as well. I think I must have mentioned to her that I over-draw my lips and they said they could do it with the tattoo,’ Stephanie said.
‘I could see the part where they had over-drawn my lips too. It left this weird outline around my lips that kind of looked like a rash,’ she said
‘I was under the impression that I was going to get the feather stroke tattoo but I found out later that the reason they didn’t do that for me was because I’ve got oily skin and it apparently didn’t work on oily skin types so they used the tattoo gun.
‘I discussed at length the colour – an ashy brown – and I got the lips done on the same day. With my lips I was more precise with her with what I wanted.’
Stephanie said when she looked in the mirror afterwards she regretted it instantly.
‘My eyebrows were black and my lips were so swollen and so huge, they looked like I’d gotten really really bad lip injections and they were bright red,’ she said.
‘My eyebrows were like massive black bricks on my eyes.’
Pictured top left are Stephanie’s brows now after being fixed up and bottom left after the first lot of tattooing and fading
But despite this, within just two weeks her brows faded to being almost ‘non-existent’ and her lips were an unusual red colour with thick lines where they’d been over-drawn.
‘After the scabs had fallen off there was almost no ink on my brows and the ink that was there was pale orange so it was definitely not what I wanted. And my lips had faded to an odd looking red so it still wasn’t the colour I had asked for,’ she said.
‘I could see the part where they had over-drawn my lips too. It left this weird outline around my lips that kind of looked like a rash.’
Stephanie went back for a touch up and was told what she had experienced was normal, but ended up with the exact same results.
‘After two weeks the ink faded to a ginger, orange pinky colour. If I had seen on their page a picture of their work which showed a tattooed eyebrow with sparse hairs and an orange pinky shading underneath I would never pay them almost $2,000 to do that to my face,’ she said.
After speaking out about it, Steph was contacted by another beauty expert who invited her into the salon to have the previous work fixed up but after moving to Ireland wasn’t able to complete her sessions
‘A couple of years on and I’m stuck with the tattoo exactly the same and it doesn’t seem to be fading. I hate it,’ she said of her lips, adding that here brows now look much better since having them fixed up by another expert
‘I ended up having to put concealer or foundation over it every day and then go right back to square one and pencil my eyebrows in.
‘Then my lips went back to how they looked after the first time so instead of a thick full luscious lip my lips looked like they were permanently chapped – this horrible red tattoo around the edge of my lips looked like I had permanently chapped, rashy lips.’
She tried to have them fixed up a third time, but experienced no change.
After speaking out about it, Steph was contacted by another beauty expert who invited her into the salon to have the previous work fixed up but after moving to Ireland wasn’t able to complete her sessions.
‘If you are thinking about it, be very very careful about where you go, do very thorough research and if you can, look at people in real life that have had work done at the same place before you do it to your own face,’ she said
‘A couple of years on and I’m stuck with the tattoo exactly the same and it doesn’t seem to be fading. I hate it,’ she said of her lips, adding that here brows now look much better since having them fixed up by another expert.
‘I just want everybody to be aware that the before and after pictures that these cosmetic tattooist show they are usually taken right after the procedure has been done so it looks fresh and nothing is faded.
‘Don’t take those pictures at their word.
‘If you are thinking about it, be very very careful about where you go, do very thorough research and if you can, look at people in real life that have had work done at the same place before you do it to your own face.’