Semi-permanent or permanent?

Here is the short answer: they are the same thing. “Semi-permanent” is what we say in Britain, “permanent” is what they say in America, and neither one lasts longer than the other.

You will also see it called cosmetic tattooing, micropigmentation, or PMU. All the same treatment. If a studio tells you their work is permanent and somebody else's is not, they are describing their marketing, not their technique.

So how long does it really last?

Yours will look its best for twelve to eighteen months, then it wants a boost to put the colour back.

It fades because the pigment sits in the upper layer of your skin and your body gradually breaks it down and clears it away. A body tattoo goes far deeper with ink made to stay put. Same idea, different depth, completely different lifespan.

Left alone it keeps fading for years. A faint shadow can hang about, so treat it as a decision you live with for a good while rather than one you can undo next spring.

Fading is the point, not the flaw

It is tempting to want something that lasts for ever for the money. It is a mistake, and here is why.

Think what brows looked like in 2012, and what they look like now. Your face changes too, and so does your hair colour. Because your brows fade, you get to adjust them every eighteen months or so — softer, warmer, a different shape — instead of being stuck with a decision you made years ago.

Brow work that genuinely will not shift goes wrong slowly and publicly, and correcting it costs more than having it done did.

One thing that is not just wording

Whatever it is called, it is legally a tattoo, and that has real consequences worth knowing.

Your artist has to be registered with the council for it, and so do the premises. Nobody under eighteen can have it, in any circumstances, whatever a parent says. And you are entitled to ask to see that registration — Alison keeps hers on the wall and would far rather you asked.