Engie recently posted about the tattoos she is not going to get and I have been thinking about it a lot.

Currently, I have zero tattoos. There was a time when I was twenty that I was obsessed with getting a tattoo. I think the tattoo I thought I wanted was some sort of Chinese symbol of the style that were so popular in the early aughts, but I can’t really remember; I don’t have the faintest idea what the symbol would have been for. Luckily, my tendency toward procrastination saved me. At the time, I told myself that if I was still obsessed with getting a tattoo after a year, I could get one. The obsession faded, and I have not seriously wanted one for decades. 

Until now.

But the tattoo I’m hankering after these days is a little different. I want to tattoo my eyebrows. 

My eyebrows have always been on the full side, and I’ve only ever plucked them: no waxing or threading here. And I’ve only ever plucked them lightly; somehow I avoided the Super Skinny Eyebrow Trend of the 90s and 00s. 

My eyebrows are also similar in color to my natural hair color, which is kind of a mousey light brown. Plus, a few strands of brow are distinctly grey. I have also noticed more recently, perhaps in the past six months or so, that my right eyebrow is thinning. Or getting patchy, or something. There’s skin visible where brow should be. 

For the past decade or so, I’ve been using dark brown eyebrow mascara to match my brows more closely to my hair. Then, in the past few years, I’ve been dyeing my brows to match my hair. The dye doesn’t last very long, though, so I have to supplement with eyebrow mascara in between hair appointments. And now that my right eyebrow has sprouted a weird bald patch, I’ve been experimenting with eyebrow pencil. 

At my last hair appointment, my hair stylist revealed to me that she has a similar issue with her brows not matching her hair. But instead of dyeing her brows, she has permanent eyebrow tattoos!

I am familiar with eyebrow tattoos; I know several people who have them. But for these people at least, I’ve been able to tell that their brows were tattooed on, mainly because there has been no brow leftover. Does that make sense? Like, the only brow visible on the forehead is tattoo. This is such a great option for people with very fine brows or brows that did not survive the Super Skinny Brow Trend, or people who have no brows due to alopecia or chemotherapy or whatever. When they are well done, they look great. But since I have eyebrows, it seems silly to shave them off and replace them with tattooed ones.

HOWEVER, my hair stylist informed me that her tattoos are UNDER her brows. And I looked and looked and cannot tell that her brows are tattooed at all. The tattoo must serve the same purpose as eyebrow pencil, filling in around the actual hair. (Why do I keep wanting to say “fur” instead of hair? Yes, technically eyebrows are made up of small hairs… but I maintain that eyebrows should have their own terminology, like lashes and whiskers do.)

All this has me thinking a lot about whether I want to get eyebrow tattoos. Apparently there is also something called microblading which seems to have similar but less permanent results. (I have heard the term “microblading” for years and years and always thought it was a hair removal procedure, not a way to make your eyebrows look fuller. Yet another reason not to make assumptions, Internet!) And there seems to be a third option, which is an eyebrow transplant. I think I will leave that to people who are in REAL need of eyebrows. 

Have you – or someone you know – tried eyebrow tattoos or microblading? 

I’m still early in the Thinking About It stage, although I think about brow tattoos quite a lot. The main things holding me back are: 1.) Pain. I don’t even have my ears pierced, am I really going to get tattoos on my face? 2.) Permanency. What if the tattoo job isn’t good? What if it is good but I hate it? What if I do it and then still need to use brow mascara to get the color I want? What if I spend my entire life looking like Uncle Leo?

Probably, as with the previous tattoo obsession, I need to hold off for at least a year to see if it’s a real desire or a passing fancy. In the meantime, I think I will try something I saw on Instagram, which is using a clear brow gel in combination with an eyebrow pen.