Cosmetic tattooing begun to gain popularity around 10 years ago with the “feathertouch” or “microblading” technique, which used a hand blade to create slits in the skin which were filled with pigment. Unfortunately this technique left a lot of people with scarring and in some cases even resulted in a loss of eyebrow hair, as the blade makes it hard to control the depth in the skin and many inexperienced artists went too deep in the skin. On most skin types, the strokes also blend together over time, resulting in a blocky look. The hand blade is also a lot more painful for the client. For these reasons, we do not use a hand blade at all at the studio, only a machine. This is not to say that this technique is inherently bad and there is still some artists that do this technique well, but they are few and far between.

When machine style brows such as Ombre and Combination started becoming popular in around 2017, most clients wanted bold brows to look like makeup. This time was definitely the ‘Sharpie brow’ era. Anastasia Dip Brow was all the rage, and every client wanted to wake up looking like they had a full face of makeup on (I am definitely guilty of this too!)

In 2025 times have definitely changed, and we find that more and more clients are opting for a more natural, tint stained effect. Now this is not to say that we don’t love to test our skills with a defined outline, but we also love to hear that our clients’ friends didn’t even know they had their brows tattooed as they’re so natural.

Fresh tattooing can look intense and dark but please remember that this is only temporary, and it will only look like this for a few days. Once healed, the brows will look lighter, softer and a lot more natural. Brow tattoos will also heal cooler, meaning that they will look a bit more warm or orange/red when you see them fresh in photos.

Cosmetic tattooing is many up of thousands (if not millions) of tiny little dots that the machine makes in the skin. We control the amount of dots and the spacing between the dots to make the brows softer or more defined.

For the outline of the brows, we can do a defined, crisp edge by putting the dots nice and close together. We can also space the dots out to create a softer, fluffier outline. This means that we can customise your brow tattoo to be as soft or defined as you like.

If you like your brows to look tidy but still natural, we can even do a defined outline under the brow and a softer outline on top of the brow. This has become a bit of a speciality for us. We are yet to think of a clever name for this technique however, so we just call them Soft but Defined.

There is a common misconception that Nano Combo brows are more natural looking than Ombre brows, but that is not true. We can make both styles as natural or as crisp as you want them to be by changing the way we do the outline.

A Sharp, Defined Outline

Intensity = Longevity

The more intense the initial brow tattoo, the longer it will last.

Intensity = Darkness + Saturation

The darkness is how dark of a pigment you choose. The saturation is how much pigment we put into the skin. As I said before, we can control how close the dots of pigment are, with more dots meaning more saturation. More defined styles are more saturated in colour, and so will last longer.

The longevity of your brow tattoo will also be affected by a large range of factors including: your pre and aftercare, smoking, sun exposure, skincare in the area, skin treatments in the area, skin type (oily/dry), skin conditions (dermatitis, psoriasis) and skin tone.

Over time, the cosmetic tattoo will fade, as our body will push the pigment higher and will naturally be taken out of the skin. The warmer pigments sit higher in the skin and so will leave the skin before the cooler colours. This is why over time both cosmetic tattoos and body tattoos can look cooler, or more “ashy”. This just means that they will require a touch up to add the warmer tones back in.