Botched Ink Company Story

Read Lisa's Story 

Summary Introduction

This post delves into the mission, vision, and values of Botched Ink, a leading training company in the cosmetic tattooing industry

Rooted in a commitment to raise industry standards, Botched Ink aims to educate and support PMU technicians worldwide in meeting new minimum standards for permanent makeup and microblading removal and maintenance

Central to their vision is eradicating the need for pigment removal of poorly executed work and establishing a new standard of brow maintenance adopted by all PMU professionals. By advocating for informed consent and emphasizing the long-term maintenance cycle of cosmetic tattooing, Botched Ink seeks to empower both technicians and clients to make informed decisions

From their humble beginnings in 2018 to their global expansion and commitment to quality training, Botched Ink continues to lead the charge in revolutionizing the cosmetic tattoo removal industry while championing the PMU community and promoting responsible practices.

Mission

Our mission is to train, support and nurture PMU technicians worldwide, by helping them to meet new minimum standards for permanent makeup and microblading removal and maintenance. At the same time we educate clients about the long-term maintenance cycle of cosmetic tattooing, enabling informed consent for these treatments

Vision

To eradicate the need for pigment removal of bad and oversaturated work, and establish a new standard of brow maintenance, which is adopted by all PMU professionals

For all clients to understand the long term maintenance cycle of microblading and permanent makeup, and with this knowledge choosing to visit experts who specialise in these treatments. Bringing the treatment back into the hands of specialists will decrease the amount of clients needing bad work removed, leaving removal treatments just for maintenance. Wouldn't that be great!

Setting a New Industry Standard

Our minimum standard is for all permanent makeup and microblading clients to be advised that removal will be incorporated into their long-term treatment plan, allowing technicians to continue delivering their best work year upon year

With Botched Ink being ideally placed to be this removal treatment!

Today, we must draw a line under all the clients who've not previously had this information, understanding that for them the difficult conversations of them needing removal will continue. Let's start afresh, literally!

Who we Are

Botched Ink is an industry leading training company in the cosmetic tattooing industry. We exist to establish a new best practice for microblading and permanent makeup maintenance, correction, lightening and removal treatments. We support and educate technicians and their potential clients about our industry leading Botched Ink removal treatments

Our Customers

Our customers are both industry professionals looking to deliver the best possible treatments for their clients and the clients themselves who are looking to guarantee quality results from initial treatments and maintenance. In addition, we provide that emergency service and support for clients who have experienced a PMU disaster and are looking for urgent support with removal

Why it Matters

We believe that training in pigment removal and maintenance is as important as training to give treatments in the first place. One should not happen without the other. Our industry has changed dramatically in recent years. Training standards vary wildly and sadly eyebrow disasters from under qualified technicians have become the norm. Pigments have also changed, with some brands lasting longer than ever, creating new problems when it comes to maintaining and correcting existing work

The demand for Botched Ink Rescue has never been higher, to fix disasters, unwanted shapes, and pigment saturation, but the industry absolutely needs a new best practice to maintain the long-term beauty of microblading and eyebrow permanent makeup, which is where our Botched Ink Revive product shines

Values

• We share our knowledge generously
• We champion and support the PMU community
• We always act responsibly
• We are uncompromising in raising and establishing standards

Company Story

Botched Ink was founded in 2018 by Lisa Henning, owner of Beautiful Ink Limited. Initially, Lisa offered treatments, such as permanent makeup (2012), non-laser tattoo removal (2013) and dry tattooing (2013) at her home studio in Brighton on the south coast of Great Britain. Dry Tattooing is an advanced scar and stretch mark skin needling treatment using a digital tattoo machine, the same as you'd also use for permanent makeup

By 2015 Lisa was offering training and in 2016 she started selling Doreme pigments  and tattoo machines. Fast forward a couple of years and Lisa was a champion of using saline for pigment removal (which is widely used and accepted in the industry) because the alternative acid or alkaline solutions are riskier to work with

A+ Ocean and Li-FT

For products, in 2017 Lisa partnered with A+ Ocean, a well-known manufacturer of saline removal solution, before going on to write and deliver training on how to use their products successfully. This is how the first Beautiful Ink Saline Tattoo Removal course was born!

After becoming one of A+ Ocean’s most successful trainers, travelling around the country offering removal training, she moved from Brighton, relocating to her own new Training Venue in Stockport, Greater Manchester. In 2018 Lisa parted ways with A+ Ocean in order to retain her own intellectual property and ownership of the course she’d developed. She transitioned to offering saline tattoo removal training using a similar product called Li-FT – the only other pre-made saline removal solution available at the time

At around the same time, poor skills and training had become the norm in the microblading and PMU industry. This, coupled with the explosion of demand from consumers, meant that the demand for removal was growing exponentially as consumers looked to correct or remove poor quality work

Lisa saw an opportunity to set a higher standard for pigment removal solutions. Having used both A+ Ocean & Li-FT saline removal solutions extensively, Lisa knew that she could improve on the formula. Her vision was to create a much-needed removal solution that clients would be looking for, and a team of removal specialists that discerning technicians would want to join

Removal Training

Botched Ink was developed during 2018, and on 13th January 2019 was officially launched as part of Beautiful Ink Ltd. There were some early difficulties in getting Botched Ink to a wide audience - the company was being run single handed, with little money, and despite the demand for PMU being higher than ever, cosmetic tattoo removal as a concept hadn’t yet become widely understood by the technicians of offered permanent makeup and microblading treatments, nor their clients. Removal training did exist, but quality wasn’t consistent, and the information shared by trainers was limited as many had little removal experience themselves

Botched Ink needed to change this. As more techs wanted to learn removal, the need for products with a good reputation, consistent results, and photos to share on social media became more important than ever. With a passion to create a brand at the forefront of removal training, keep comprehensive removal training at a realistic price and deliver results that the techs and clients would be delighted by, Botched Ink soon became one of the two most talked about removal brands in the world. Industry Facebook groups and student recommendations played a big part in this success. From the start, the Botched Ink website was built ready for a wide audience, with reviews, map of technicians, training and product information. With little money spent on advertising, the growth of Botched Ink has mainly been organic, after all, Botched Ink is a name you're likely to remember!

Going Global!

Then in November 2019, the company launched their worldwide online training, ready for Black Friday and with their first Worldwide distributor in Canada. By May 2020 the two brands – Beautiful Ink & Botched Ink – were split into two separate companies. Generic saline tattoo removal training was everywhere, and Botched Ink removal solution was being sold by online via industry distributors in America, Canada and Australia, supplied to technicians who by purchasing were confirming they had removal training, either with Botched Ink or elsewhere. Keeping track of this was impossible for the company, and it began to feel like the brand of Botched Ink was developing holes and leaking!

Covid lockdowns increased demand for online training like never before, and many trainers who were unaffiliated with Botched Ink were promoting the Botched Ink serum and training information on their own training courses, infringing trademarks and intellectual property, and not delivering training to the standards that a Botched Ink technician should receive. Protecting the brand was a daily task

At the same time, although product sales were going up via the worldwide distributors, Botched Ink training sales were being promoted less, as more trainers were recommending the product on their own courses. Sales to individuals were going unchecked, meaning it was unknown whether those who purchased had any removal training at all. Lisa knew that this would present a risk to the quality of the results, an safety of treatments that the product could deliver, which in turn would be damaging to the Botched Ink brand

Being a Buzzword

February 2021 saline tattoo removal had become a buzzword, and the plan for Botched Ink to improve the removal industry was being lost in product sales. This was all taking the brand in an unwanted direction, Lisa decided to pull all distribution and limit product sales only to official Botched Ink technicians. This was a bold move to ensure the future longevity of the brand, by maintaining quality and keeping loyalty amongst the official Botched Ink techs who had personally invested in the brand by paying to take the official Botched Ink training course

Many official techs loved the decision. They hadn’t liked unofficial saline tattoo removal techs using Botched Ink and felt very protective towards the brand, which was helpful in countering the negativity in some of the Facebook groups from techs who still wanted to buy Botched Ink without taking our training. However, it’s worth noting that untrained techs or those who have already had removal training and don’t want to take another course represent a big education opportunity for Botched Ink!

Supplier Brands

Supplier ‘own brands’ have now stepped in with their basic saline removal solutions and low-priced training. Li-FT is still recommended on many training courses and there's an endless debate about “which is better, Botched Ink or Li-FT?”. A+ Ocean is hardly mentioned and may no longer be available (2023), and the supplier own brands are most popular on their own supplier Facebook groups and training teams

Botched Ink is the only full-service saline removal brand, owned, developed, manufactured, and supplied with training, with standards maintained by head office, and a central website to book training, order stock and for clients to find a local technician and information about cosmetic tattoo removal

The opportunity for growth in this industry is huge, as Botched Ink shifts focus from gaining technicians, to gaining them clients – by educating the beauty industry and their clients that removing bad or unwanted microblading is possible, and funky coloured, old, tattooed brows can look pretty again

New Problems

After the explosion of new techs offering microblading and permanent makeup, ‘Emergency Removal’ has become a phenomenon. There’s the significant problem of clients unfortunately experiencing horrific work, or having an extreme 'brow shock' reaction to good work – both of which will require professional removal

Inevitably, this has also led to an explosion in techs offering saline tattoo removal when they haven’t received quality training, don’t understand the basics of how to safely use the product to get the best results, and maybe the product they're using won't give the best results anymore, because it's in a bottle that's been open for too long and the product has degraded

This all presents a real risk that saline tattoo removal won’t be considered a well-regarded treatment as the years go on. Botched Ink can change this. By raising awareness of Botched Ink being the name to look for when researching saline tattoo removal treatments, being the only saline brand to regulate the sales of the removal solution to restrict sales to only officially trained Botched Ink technicians