Permanent Eye Makeup

After gaining momentum in the past few decades, permanent eye makeup (makeup tattoos), is now a more sought after alternative to traditional cosmetics. Women can get tattoos for eyeliner, eyebrows, and lip liner, among others. The process is painful and expensive, the eventual result not even lasting ten years. Is it really worth the saved 10 minutes in the morning?

The process itself comes with many risks, some of which include potential "allergies to pigments, formation of scars, granulomas and keloids, skin cracking, peeling, blistering, and local infection" (Wikipedia). I don't know if those risks, especially if occurring on my face, would be worth the "convenience" of permanent makeup. Aside from the risks involved with applying the permanent makeup, removal is even more painful and expensive than the initial procedure. Even if you decide not to have the embedded eyebrows removed, the color of the tattoos fades after about ten years and a touchup would be needed, incurring more pain and cost.

Permanent eye makeup, besides being painful and expensive, also has uneasiness about it. Regular makeup enhances features as does permanent makeup, but it's much less defacing. Having tattoos on your face really is permanent and I believe, an indelible distortion of the face. Traditional makeup does alter the way you look, but you can take it off—it's a temporary alteration that's really not that dramatic anyway. Permanent makeup on the other hand changes the way you actually look; its effect is different than that of removable cosmetics. Over time, as I've seen with some I know, the face starts to look somewhat unnatural, plastic-like. Isn't that what Barbie has: makeup that doesn't come off? Barbie is a doll, a plastic, unrealistic toy.. Humans were not made to look like toys. Makeup should look natural and while permanent makeup may appear natural at first, over time that façade dwindles leaving unattractive shadows of what once was.

I don't think that ten or fifteen minutes in the morning to put on makeup is that big a deal. Even if you have allergies to normal cosmetics, it is possible to find ones suited for your skin type. With all that permanent makeup involves—expense, risk of scarring and other complications, pain, defacement—I don't see the benefit other than saved time. How far are women willing to go to achieve this twisted sense of beauty?