The Difference in Microblading and Tattoos

Until the recent invention of microblading, the only effective option women had who had lost their eyebrows, was either to draw their brows on each morning, or to get an eyebrow tattoo. Tattoos are a permanent application of pigment under the skin, and this approach had many drawbacks for the brow area. Firstly, the pigment created a solid area of color. It looked like brow powder, rather than actual hairs. Secondly, because tattoo pigments are permanent, the color would gradually fade over time, but not disappear. As the color faded, it would tend to turn to an underlying tone (most frequently, blue/gray, and sometimes, red, green or gold). So, the client was left with a permanent shape of an artificial looking color under their brow area.

Microblading has revolutionized the permanent makeup industry by introducing a technique that lets the artist apply the pigment just under the epidermis (the top layers of the skin) but not under the dermis (the lower layers, where the skin cells are produced). The pigment will be visible, through the transparent top layers of skin, but will gradually shed away as the cells naturally turn over.

This means that the pigment will gradually fade away, rather than fading to shades of blue, green, or red. An annual touch-up allows the artist to re-apply the desired color, to keep the tone correct.

The microblading pen also allows the artist to apply the pigment in fine strokes, that resemble the shape of eyebrow hairs.