Our industry is filled with passionate and innovative artists. Today we want to celebrate a few permanent makeup artists we consider trail-blazers of PMU. Enjoy our gallery below and stop by our Instagram for more updates from Perma Blend.

Our list begins with Pati Pavlik, she started her career in Hollywood, owning and operating several thriving studios – most prominently, Laguna Beach Tattoo. She was a breast cancer survivor that used her own personal experience to write The Breast Book – a guide to areola re-pigmentation for other survivors. She additionally founded Cleo Colors – her own cosmetic pigment supply company, while also establishing a research center to help promote art in her local community.

Val Glover-Hovan is a permanent makeup artist and instructor, executing treatments on the Eyebrows, Eyes, and Lips, while also doing medical tattooing, reconstructing areolas and nipples for breast cancer survivors and camouflaging scars after surgical operations. She’s the Director of Cosmetic Tattoo in Australia and a specialist with the Hovan’s Group. She accomplished introducing the first Private Training Academy in Australia.

Elizabeth Finch Howell is an expert in manufacturing pigments and has been in the permanent makeup industry since 1989. She was honored by being asked to join the offices of Dr. Roy Geronemus, the former Chief of Laser Surgery at NYU, to offer permanent cosmetic treatments to patients, with her extensive knowledge and a keen eye for detail in camouflaging scars at the New York Laser and Skin Surgery Center. She was one of the first permanent makeup artists to be recognized by the medical field and in 1992 earned the credentials as the Director of the Department of Permanent Cosmetics at Saint Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, New Jersey; which went on to be the first hospital in the country to have a department for permanent makeup treatments.

Kate Ciampi Shergold is a current Executive Director on the Board of The Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals (SPCP). She shares her knowledge by writing and public speaking about advanced procedures. She has a commitment to the craft and dedication to enhancing PMU education. Kate has been an expert speaker on the topic of Medical Tattooing for years.

Marjorie Grimm served as a board member on the SPCP and was a contributor to the development of the Certified Permanent Cosmetic Professional (CPCP) process. She’s worked as a legislative consultant and greatly helping in dealing with legislative related issues. She was on the exclusive team that participated in addressing the state law for tattooing in California. She always kept the industry’s needs at heart and when she saw artists were facing laws with provisions that weren’t in their best interest, she strived to change them and succeeded and multiple occasions. She’s developed materials for instructing aspiring artists and published multiple textbooks.

Susan Preston has served as the President of Professional Program Insurance Brokerage. She has been leading insurance programs for the industry since 1993. In addition to being President of her own insurance agency, Professional Program Insurance Brokerage (PPIB) she’s the majority owner of a permanent cosmetics supply business, Face and Body Professionals, and the co-founder of the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals – a non-profit association setting standards for the permanent makeup industry. Susan has been providing insurance to the permanent cosmetic, tattoo, and beauty industries for over 18 years.

Mary Jane Haake has over 40 years of experience as a permanent makeup artist. She was one of the few artists selected in the nation to be credentialed by insurance companies to give reconstructive breast tattoos after mastectomies. As an active artist, she showed true compassion for her clients, when asked ‘What do you do if someone can’t afford your services?’ she responded,

“I let them cook for me. It costs them a plate of lasagna. There are a lot of people that have lost their insurance. They’d been having surgeries for five, six years. It can be a two- or three-year extravaganza. People have made me jewelry. I don’t believe in giving the work out for free.”