Whatever someone has booked in for, brows, lips, eyeliner or a full scalp, the question comes up in almost every single consultation. Does it hurt?
So let me give you an honest answer rather than the line most people expect to hear. It depends on the area and it depends on you, but in over ten years of doing this, I can count on one hand the clients who have described what happens in my chair as properly painful. Uncomfortable in places, yes. Painful, almost never.
Brows are the easiest by far. Lips and eyeliner sit closer to the nerve, so they ask a bit more of you, though a topical anaesthetic keeps that well managed throughout. Scalp work surprises people the most, the scalp simply is not a particularly sensitive area, so clients are often more bothered by sitting still for two to four hours than by anything the needle is doing. If anything, the bit that actually stings on a brow appointment is the tweezing and shaping I do beforehand to perfect the outline, not the tattooing itself, the machine or hand tool afterwards barely registers by comparison.
Every treatment at DPC starts and continues with a proper topical anaesthetic, applied and reapplied through the appointment, not just dabbed on at the start and left to wear off.
Lips get the most attention because that area is more sensitive than most. I would rather stop and reapply anaesthetic partway through than rush to keep to a schedule. It takes a little longer, but a comfortable, unhurried client sits stiller, and stiller means a cleaner result.
That willingness to keep problem solving on comfort comes from the same place as everything else I do. Ten years in this industry now, trained by Nouveau Contour to Platinum Masters level, working across brows, lips, eyeliner and scalp micropigmentation every week, and I still train regularly with the leading names in this industry rather than assuming ten years is enough on its own. That range of work, from a five minute brow correction to a multi hour scalp session, teaches you fast how to keep a treatment genuinely comfortable, not just the straightforward ones.
What I will not do is promise you a treatment that does not exist. If someone tells you their version is completely painless, I would ask what else they are rounding up for you. My job is to make sure whatever discomfort there is stays minor, stays brief, and that you know precisely what to expect before I pick up a single tool.
Most of my clients tell me afterwards that the worry beforehand was worse than the appointment itself. I will happily take that as the compliment it is.
You can read more about this here: https://www.dpcclinic.co.uk/permanent-make-up-2/