She turned 80 in 2022 and yesterday I did her eyeliner. Why? Well, she has many eye problems and is also visually impaired so putting on eyeliner is 1. Very tricky, and 2. Looks very messy. Some might say “just don’t bother”, but why not? She FEELS better when she has a little makeup on. She FEELS like herself with a little eye makeup on and most of all it brings her joy. So we did it!
Read on if you want to know more about the technical side of what I did.
So… first, and most importantly, I would NEVER have attempted this on my Mum without my 11 years of knowledge or my experience with needles, pigments, anatomy and skin. She’s the most precious thing in the world to me and I wanted to help her but I HAD to consider every single thing I did.
Backstory: she has Wet & Dry AMD, Pseudo Exfoliation Syndrome, cataract on left eye and had a lens replacement on right eye (which is quite sensitive to touch). She’s not on any meds other than BP tablets, so that factor was not a huge issue.
My main thinking was “gentle & fast”. I didn’t want to work on her eyes for too long at all so as to minimise her swelling and therefore she’d have an easier & nicer heal. Also my stretches had to be efficient but super gentle due to how sensitive her right eye is (this was the most challenging part!).
I decided to use a well-diluted carbon black pigment in the end (Double Black), I wanted the result to be a soft pixelated lighter wash of colour rather than a harshly tattooed line, and to get that effect I decided I needed an intense strength of pigment to counteract the dilution process. I also needed the pigment to fly in the skin, in the least time possible, hence choosing a carbon.
*PLEASE NOTE: Artists not experienced / trained in using carbon DO NOT attempt to use it in this scenario*
Needle choices: Lower- 0.18 WS Acupoint. Upper- 0.25 1LS Acupoint. Machine – Mast. Power Supply- Critical Spd 4.5. Technique: Extremely gentle, slow & delicate whip shading & pointillism.
This was almost a “test run” treatment for her, executed with EXTREME CAUTION from all angles, so perhaps not much will hold. We’ll see. It’s a very complex canvas and my choices were super conservative because her safety and well being is the priority, so I’m not expecting a perfect heal, however, if some holds, she has an easy heal and no problems at all then I know that I have a good baseline to work with and can push things a little more on her next follow up appointment, but STILL very carefully.
Hope this was useful or interesting for you, I’d love to read your thoughts, or counter suggestions/ ideas on how you might have handled a case like this, if at all, or if you have any questions please ask!
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