March 27, 2017

Meet Anna Burns of Anna Burns Permanent Cosmetics in Atlanta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Burns.

Anna, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born into a creative family. I grew up watching my father create beautiful wood carvings and paper origami. The primary care giver in my home, my mom, sewed beautiful evening dresses. She also had charcoal portraits she made in college I discovered hidden in our home which inspired me tremendously. My father had a respectable collection of comic books, from Jack Kirby and other greats. I remember thumbing through them as a child with my older siblings, being inspired and drawing from them. This was the favorite pass time for my siblings and I.

I attended a prestigious art school in Pasadena, California and earned a degree in Illustration. I remember particularly loving figures and portraits as my favorite subjects. I hoped to be a fine artist and to produce gallery work but this dream quickly faded as the realization of making a living from it was not very profitable. Enter the start of my commercial art career path. I began working for Disney, creating products with Disney characters on them, which led to illustrating how to draw books for Disney and eventually to storyboarding for different animation studios. The work was fun, creative, and challenging. It was in this industry that fellow artists shared their love of video game art, manga, and anime with me.

Starting a family was a big adjustment. I moved from Los Angeles to Atlanta with the focus on being a stay at home mom. Leaving work to raise a family was particularly a difficult choice since I had been on a professional career track. It really was a hard adjustment but I am glad I did it. Times were trying with one income. I was not the best money manager and I loved to spend money to relieve the stress of motherhood and child rearing. In fact, I was so good at buying merchandise at a discount sale price that one day my husband told me to do him a favor and stop saving him so much money. Motherhood is hard work. Many times when the dishes were cleaned nothing was noticed. However, when the dishes were left sitting, I got a complaint. I sure am glad those days are behind me now.

When my oldest turned 6, I started to teach art privately to help with the financial situation. I met a tattoo shop owner who wanted to set himself apart as he was tired of tattooing from flash. I taught him the fundamental elements of art: how light and shade affect materials and form, volume, perspective, composition. He was so impressed with my knowledge in art that he offered to mentor me as his tattoo apprentice. It is at Celebrity Status Tattoos I first worked as a tattoo artist and discovered a new canvas for my art, the human skin.

Around the time I was working as a body art tattoo artist an older friend of mine approached me and mentioned that a friend of hers in her sixties was getting a tattoo. I could not wait to hear the rest of the story as I assumed her friend was as conservative and proper as her. Needless to say, she inquired of her friend about the tattoo a few weeks later and it turned out to be a nipple tattoo. This was the first I have heard of medical tattooing or permanent cosmetics. She sparked in me the idea of pursuing permanent cosmetics and I have not turned back since.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
On a single income (at the time my husband was the only provider for our family of 4), I enrolled in a permanent cosmetics school in Florida. I used some of the family savings and I went to live and study in Florida for three and a half months. My boys were 8 and 6 at the time. It was a huge financial and emotional sacrifice. I missed my children terribly every day I was away from them, and, they missed me. 460 hours later, I earned certifications in many aspects of permanent cosmetics including, eyeliner, eyebrows, lips, areola, tattoo removal, and skin needling for scar reduction and collagen rejuvenation.

In 2013, I started my business with no business plan and not much in my pocket. I had a shot in the dark and I went for it. What I love about being a business owner is it gives me scheduling and artistic freedom. That said, the freedom of expressing and developing my own artistic style mean a lot to me as well. Being an artist in the field of permanent cosmetics is not easy. There are so many skills one has to acquire: professionalism, customer service, bedside manner, design, color, attention to detail, mastering the skin, your technique and your equipment whether manual or machine. I invest in several advance trainings each year to keep up to date with the most advance equipment and techniques in permanent cosmetics.

Anna Burns Permanent Cosmetics – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We offer cosmetic makeup tattoos for eyebrows, eyeliner, lips; cosmetic paramedical tattoos for scar camouflage; areola and 3D areola tattoos; and tattoo lightening/removal. We also offer non-surgical scar revision and skin rejuvenation utilizing your own body’s collagen production process. We have great products for hair growth stimulation, as well as hair growth stimulation treatments.

I am known for my paramedical tattoo services for areola reconstruction and scar camouflage, as well as makeup tattoo services. As a company, I am very proud of the positive change I make in people’s lives from the simplest time saving of makeup application for people with busy schedules to helping women regain their confidence in their private and public interactions with others.

What sets me apart is my background in illustration and fine arts. I went to College of Art and Design in Pasadena, California. This training taught me to pay attention to details, craftsmanship, forms (portrait painting methods to bring out the forms of the face on a flat canvas is utilized in contouring of the face during makeup application), design methods (balance and symmetry is applied to brows, eyeliners and lip design), color theory in traditional art helps in understanding pigment choices in tattoo applications. Most importantly, my experience with my arts training taught me to pursue what inspires me most first then success will follow.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor. I remember when she got her areola tattooed and it made a big impact on her confidence. From then on, I set my mind to wanting to help women regain their confidence and to learn areola tattooing. Armed with a mission, I pursued the field of permanent cosmetics.

That said, two years ago, a breast cancer patient came in the office to see me for areola reconstruction tattoo. She felt she did not need it but came in anyway because of her plastic surgeon’s persuasion. She felt her body, now scarred and far from her original figure cannot benefit from such a procedure. Despite her lack of enthusiasm and having resigned herself to the thought of her irreversible physical reality, we proceeded. As I finished tattooing her areola, I sat her up and handed her a mirror. With nervous anticipation, she straightened herself up and held the mirror tight in her hands. What I saw next was something that touched my heart. As she stood in front of the mirror and looked at her newly tattooed areola, she quietly stared at her reflection for a moment. Her face became flushed and tears started to well up in her eyes. She gave me a teary smile and thanked me for making her feel more whole again. She was amazed at how her body was transformed.

She came back for her continuation visits with purpose. During the course of her areola tattoo procedure, I learned that her cancer had metastasized. She held back her tears and appeared cheerful. She is a very strong woman and I will always be thankful for the role I have in helping her live a positive, beautiful and confident life.

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