Mototsugu Fukaya MD

Director of Tsurumai Kouen Clinic and Medical Society of Permanent Makeup

Introduction

Permanent makeup is a medical act in Japan, and only doctors and nurses who have been instructed by a doctor can perform this.

This is by no means a global standard. For example, in the United States, permanent makeup is treated in the same way as tattoos, and if a state license is obtained, it can be performed legally without medical qualifications. As far as I know, South Korea is the only country that defines permanent makeup as a medical practice like Japan.

While permanent makeup is considered a medical practice in Japan, tattoos are not. This is even though the physical act of inserting a needle into the skin is the same. No one can give a clear answer as to the difference between the two.

Once the National Police Agency asked the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare about permanent makeup that was originally done by unqualified people at esthetic salons, “Isn't this a medical act?（Isn't it subject to crackdowns that violate the Medical Practitioners Act?）” It all started when the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare responded that “Permanent makeup is a medical act.'' According to the response from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, permanent makeup treatments by unqualified people were exposed one after another. As an extension and expanded interpretation, tattoo artists have also been exposed for violating the Medical Practitioners Act. In response to this, one tattooist filed a lawsuit, and the Supreme Court ruled that “Permanent makeup is a medical practice, but tattooing is not a medical practice.'' That is how it happened.

Whether or not permanent makeup is a medical act is thus a matter of administrative regulation. And it's hard to draw a line between permanent makeup and tattooing. The judicial judgment has not yet been issued when the eyebrow-shaped pigment was put in at the tattoo studio and claimed that "This is not a permanent makeup but an eyebrow-shaped tattoo."

Let's leave this issue for now. Anyway, in Japan, permanent makeup was considered a medical practice. And the unqualified people who were conventionally performing permanent makeup were expelled as illegal. However, there is a demand for permanent makeup.

There are doctors and nurses who see this as a business opportunity, as well as entrepreneurs who want to open permanent makeup clinics.

The author does not deny such a way of thinking. There is no problem even if public health insurance un-covered medical treatment, especially cosmetic medicine, is for profit. But what about its contents? Isn't it hard to say that it is being done in the name of medical practice, just following the treatment of non-medical people until then, and paying no attention to the ingredients of pigments and sterilization methods?

If permanent makeup remained as a treatment by non-medical people like in the United States, I would not have this kind of lament. However, in Japan, permanent makeup was considered a medical practice due to the above-mentioned circumstances. If so, it should be suitable for medical practice and should be verified and modified for conventional permanent makeup treatments. The problem is that they are competing to enter new markets without doing so at all.

Over the past few years, I have been working on making my own pigments for permanent makeup using my knowledge and experience as a former dermatologist. At the same time, I have also been repeatedly searching the literature for possible complications associated with permanent makeup treatments, as well as adjusting anesthetics for permanent makeup, which have been relied on private imports from overseas.　　

This book aims to provide information on those findings to doctors and nurses who are currently involved in permanent makeup treatments or who are about to be involved. This is for the healthy development of permanent makeup, which is a new market for medical professionals.

Permanent makeup, especially for nurses, is done under the direction of a doctor, but it is possible to be completely involved from the beginning to the end, and furthermore, design and sense are required, would be a challenging task. Recently, I have heard that some people enter nursing school because they want to become permanent makeup nurses.

There will also be more doctors who instruct nurses without performing permanent makeup themselves. It is the minimum responsibility of doctors to prepare an environment in which nurses can perform permanent makeup as a medical practice with confidence and pride.

There may be a limit to what can be conveyed in such a book about design and techniques. You should strive for self-improvement by repeating observations of skilled practitioners.

Those who aspire to permanent makeup treatment need to go through three steps.

The first is to imprint the information into the brain as lectures, the second is to repeatedly visit the clinic where the treatment is actually being performed to train the image, and the third is to actually perform the treatment.

Permanent makeup workshops seem to be held by several organizations, but it is difficult for busy medical professionals to go to the designated date and time. It also seems that the course of study is organized without distinguishing between the first and second stages.

This book was created with the aim of enabling the first stage of pre-learning as much as possible during the busy day-to-day work without having to go to a class.

Learn the basic knowledge about medical permanent makeup with this book, perform the "Medical permanent makeup basic knowledge check" provided on the Internet, and if you can answer all the questions correctly, print out the screen and send it to the secretariat. “Medical Permanent Makeup Test Pass Certificate” will be issued. After that, the second stage is achieved by visiting our related facilities several times. Next, the third step would be to ask a friend or acquaintance to perform the treatment. After that, how to make use of permanent makeup as your career depends on your effort and enthusiasm.

I sincerely hope that this book will serve as a guideline for doctors and nurses who seriously aspire to perform medical permanent makeup.

In this book, the clinical photographs published in the medical papers were copied by the artist, Hikaru Bai. This is due to the consideration of copyright infringement. A big thank you to Ms. Bai.