My hair is blonde and my eyelashes and eyebrows are both blonde and barely visible, so I was excited about the possibility of having a very thin, very light permanent cosmetic eyeliner and possibly eyebrows applied, so that I would look great without make-up. A former supervisor had had her lips done years before by someone else, and they looked nice and natural.
I had inherited a little bit of extra money when my grandfather passed away, so I thought that treating myself with this permanent cosmetic would not only enhance my beauty, but also speed up my routine for getting out the door in the morning & getting to work on time.
There was a coupon for a discount for this cosmetic procedure at Face Up Skin & Hair Salon in the local businesses coupon magazine, so I went and checked them out first, and made an appointment to have my eyebrows done.
But one of the before & after photos in the owner's portfolio of clients had 'after' eyebrows that looked way too arched and too high, not as natural as I would have made them look, (as an artist, myself)... So at the last minute, I changed my mind about having my eyebrows done, and called up the salon to ask if she'd mind doing eyeliner on my eyelids, instead this time. I explained why I'd gotten cold feet on the eyebrows. I didn't want to be stuck for the rest of my life with eyebrows that didn't look totally beautiful and natural, and I figured the owner's own eyelids had a beautiful very soft light light brown, pencil thin permanent eyeliner on them, and they looked perfect, gorgeous. So, I thought my eyeliner would look identical to hers.
It wasn't until after my eyeliner was already permanently applied but botched, that I got to asking about why mine didn't look like hers, that I learned that (of course, duh) someone else had applied hers (she couldn't apply her own... But at the time, I didn't know that... I thought the procedure was meticulously applied by hand very slowly & carefully, & not done with a pneumatic tool that felt like a jackhammer directly on my eyes with just the thin eyelid between my eyes and the tool that holds the tip that applies the ink. I envisioned a minute pen like tool, and in fact, other salons do use the pen-like tool, which isn't huge like this pneumatic tool that she used.
She may also have damaged my eyes with this tool and the pounds of pneumatic pressure used to apply the tiny deposits of ink. I noticed that my vision was worse afterward. I called the Ohio Board of Cosmetology later to ask about this issue..."Doesn't anyone regulate this kind of thing that can damage the eye? They were of no help whatsoever, and did not seem genuinely interested in my concerns about letting this technique go unstudied for the potential damage to the human eye, and unregulated. On this point, a cosmetoligist, my former pastor's sister-in-law, during the course of a program we were having for women only at the church, pointed out that that kind of tool and pressure could easily do damage to the tear ducts. And, don't know whether this is related or not, but about almost 2 years, now, ago, I had internal bleeding in both eyes... My right eye, especially. There was a tear on the back of the eyes, maybe on the back of the retina. I'd have to look up the ORA doctor's notes on my bill to remember the medical terminology. But I was seeing spots of blood floating through my eyes. He corrected some of it with laser surgery, which hurt a whole lot, but I still see small spots of blood floating around. The two things very well could be related. And, I'm still paying down that bill. And, as an artist, my eyes are key & extremely important to me.
I paid I think $400.00 for the procedure. I thought that it was $200.00 total, but I believe she charged that much per eye. I should charge her a million bucks for irreparable damage to my eyes, and for the removal of this terrible eyeliner which is way too dark (black black, & not the nice soft light brown that she has), and the lines are waaay too thick, and ovoid at the outside corners, which is terrible looking. She just is not artistic like the person who applied her eyeliner, and way getting way too gregarious... Doing a Ms. Twiggy look from the 50's or 60's, or a cleopatra thing going on, which is not the look that a feminine wholesome pretty blonde is going for. I look like a racoon. I have to cover it over every day with a big fat crayon-like soft colored pencil make-up, using any close-to-skin-tone color.
I sought the help of a local attorney, found one who said he would help, and he sent me back there in person for 'discovery' to find out what type of ink she had used, what exact pigment, what tool, etc., so that the people in Cleveland who might be able to remove the pigment with laser technology, would know what they were up against. They said the the delicate eye area is very tricky to be around with lasers. I've since done research on that, and there are metal ocular eye shields which can be used & cost $400.00 a pair, which should protect the eye. No one who does this laser tattoo removal normally has these eye shields already as part of their usual equipment.
Anyway, the attorney sent me back to her in person to request the necessary documents w / information, and had said that people who've reported businesses like this to the local newpaper editor, usually get results from the local paper. I asked for the documents for my attorney, and she threatened me that if I didn't leave her establishment immediately, that she would call the police. So, I left. Without the documents. The clinic in Cleveland later told me that this is not normal for an attorney to send the client chasing after documentation that he needs & that she (Cleve.) requested, like that.
Soon afterward, I got a certified letter for which I had to sign, from her own attorney threatening me to cease and decist from defaming her reputation and business. I had spoken to no one but this attorney about it. I had done some calling through the phone book to try to find anyone who could erase or remove this tattoo like permanent cosmetic, and may have mentioned where I'd had the poorly done permanent cosmetic done. But I was not publishing it in the local newspaper or saying anything to anyone else.
I later discovered that this attorney of 'mine' was a colleague in school or something with her personal private attorney's firm, so he had a conflict of interest, but did not bother to inform me of that, he just pretended to be working on it without doing anything except dragging his feet & maybe hoping the statute of limitations would run out before I discovered that he wasn't in my camp. The lady in Cleve who could possibly remove the ink was the one who kept me checking on the attorney's progress.
All I wanted was for this thing to be removed. A girlfriend of mine had had her eyeliner removed in Venezuela, but I didn't have the price of a plane ticket on top of the cost of the removal. You could still see a faint grey line on her. But that would be better than what I have now.
So, I hit the yellow pages again, and found a new attorney who said he'd take a look at the prospect. He promised results before taking my $189.00, (which I was never refunded), and he, too, dragged his feet, and according to his intern, the dates he'd given mew as the dates that he'd sent out letters of discovery & correspondence to her Face Up's owner's company insurance company, were not the same dates that she had on her calendar showing clearly when she had actually sent those documents out. He obviously was lying to me about the actual dates. He also set up a court date without my advanced knowledge, after promising to first try mediation in person in his offices with the company's insurance co. And the co. Owner, etc.in a one on one arbitration, but this mediation was never attempted first, before he went ahead and put us on the court's calendar without my approval, first or knowledge, and without discussing any of that with me. I called the court & cancelled the court date. I truly believe that he was in the same camp with the company's owner and/or her insurance company, with whom he'd been talking on the phone. I believe he was about to make a deal with them for himself with either of them or both for tipping the scales in their behalf, and for slighting, if not publicly slandering me in the process, and technically siding with them rather than doing his best to protect and provide for and defend my best interests. I did some research on him in the middle of all of this, and learned that he had lost his license with the state Bar Association or Attorney something Board or whatever it is called, I forget now. But he had been disbarred or removed from practicing law in the state of Ohio for two years in the recent (then) past, for misconduct of some kind. I asked them to please review and rule on his current conduct, and they said they found nothing that they could find fault with or that would disbar him. His secretary, too, after months & months of unreturned phone calls to him (after he already had close to $200 of my money) and after months of his grandstanding, of fudging the dates that correspondence had been sent, and of getting nothing but his voice mail and no call backs from all of my countless messages, or getting his secretary who would claim that he was out of the office, I went in in person one time, to see what all of the unreturned calls & all of the grandstanding, & all of the he's out of the office this morning from the moment they opened, was all about for myself, and his secretary, too, (like the owner of Face Up had done) told me that if I didn't leave the building now, she would call the police. So, naturally, I left. How is it that everybody can threaten me by threatening to call the police... When they are in the wrong... And even though I am in the right and have paid money for this attorney's services & for a good job of applying eyeliner, they've stolen my money, but they're able to call the police on me when I've done absolutely nothing but politely ask for documentation or a returned phone call or a progress update... And yet because I have so little money, I have to turn and run... Because I know who the police will back... And to whom they would automatically give the benefit of the doubt and credibility, and it certainly wouldn't be me... It would be these dishonest business owners?
I would love to pursue this in court to get this eyeliner safely and effectively removed, to question the safety to my eyes, and the potential of damage of using that large staple-gun-looking-like pneumatic tool that she used, especially over top of the delicate eyeball, which really hurt while she was doing it, and to debate whether she should have been using the much smaller, much more delicate pen like ink application instrument that another salon uses, which probably would have given me the beautiful fine pencil thin line that I was expecting when I thought this would give me beautiful results. And there is also the issue that she wouldn't let me park in the front parking lot of the Everhard Rd. Building, or walk in the front door, but she made me go back out into my car, drive it around back & park there, and come in the back door..."for insurance purposes" she said.
When I came in for one of the follow-up checks, so that she could take before & after photos & make sure everything was healing alright, I informed her that the thickness of the line and the dark black, and the jaggedness of the line in places, and the exaggerated Cleopatra like excess ink at the corners, was not what I'd asked for or wanted. I wasn't happy at all with it. Suddenly her husband popped out of nowhere, out of one of the clinic rooms, and they began replaying a totally different conversation verbally, than the one she and I had had earlier, trying to contradict me. The atmosphere was negatively charged, and I was not comfortable there, in her/their presence. She was actually verbally attacking rather than apologizing, seeing what remedy might be found, etc. Not the kind of person I'm used to doing business with and not the type of treatment I'm accustomed to receiving in the rest of the business world. I wish that I were still applying my usual liquid eyeliner regular (Maybeline, etc.) over-the counter make-up like I used to. That looked so much way prettier than this.
This Face Up Perm. Cosmetics, & Skin & Hair Salon Inc.'s owner's name is Ruth Bailey-Dancy. Her assistant at the time was acting defensive and unusual, too. If you need attorneys' names, those can be supplied. I was expecting a tiny hand-held instrument about the size of one of those bitty screwdrivers that you use for eyeglass screws, with a metal tip about the size of a sewing needle. I just wish that someone had outlawed the use of this pneumatic tool around the eye area before my vision was damaged by a few degrees right afterward, and possibly these tears on the back retina wall are related to the use of this tool directly over my eyeball, too. My eyes still hurt from the laser "repair" of these tears... And he could not "repair" all of them. My eyes and eyesight are of immeasurable value to me. (They are my livelihood, and key to my career.) My looks come in a close second.
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