Today we’d like to introduce you to Latoya Britt.
Hi Latoya, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My name is Latoya Britt and I’m the owner of Skyn ATL, a paramedical and cosmetic tattoo salon located in Atlanta, Georgia. As an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, I’ve diagnosed and treated over 5,000+ cancer patients. I transitioned from a prestigious career as an Oncology Nurse Practitioner to become Atlanta’s Most Sought Out Paramedical and Cosmetic Tattoo Professionals. I merged my purpose to help people with my passion for art and made it my superpower. I got the idea to start Skyn ATL in Aug 2019. What started out as a google search looking for a paramedical artist for one of my cancer survivorship patients led me on a path that ultimately changed my life.
After going down the rabbit hole of the internet and some odd hours later, I discovered the Brazilian Stretch Mark Camouflage tattoo. I started doing research on the beauty and permanent makeup industry and realized there was a niche market that was underrepresented. There was a shortage of paramedical tattoo artists and an abundance of people who needed their services.
My experience as a Nurse Practitioner provided a unique opportunity to create a lane and space for myself in an industry that is predominately populated with women who came from makeup, beauty, and hair backgrounds. It’s that same experience that gives me expertise on how therapeutic self-care and healing are and how it translates to overall improved health and wellness. I get to “practice nursing” in a way that has not been done before. Non-traditional but necessary. I get to heal people through art.
Alright, 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?
Absolutely not. First of all, I opened my business in the middle of a pandemic. It was not the way I envisioned things, but I’d essentially been paying rent in a space for six months without servicing any clients and I had to decide if I was going to chase my dream or let it die. It was scary but I followed all of the CDC recommendations and begin to implement additional safety precautions to protect myself and my clients. This meant limiting the number of clients I saw and optimizing virtual components to my business as much as possible. That essentially allowed me to expand my demographics to clients outside of Atlanta, which has paid off tremendously.
Prior to Covid, I was in between licensing and registration between Dekalb County and the City of Atlanta. I was aware of state and county regulations, but because my studio is also in the city of Atlanta, I had to have additional licensing specific to Atlanta. Dekalb Co and Atlanta have different requirements for tattoo artists and studio permits and that process to get licensing through both entities took almost three months.
Another struggle has been networking. As a new business owner and new to the Permanent Makeup (PMU) and Cosmetic Tattooing industry, I was looking forward to conferences to start networking, test products and meet other industry leaders. With Covid, everything went virtual and has limited my ability to meet other professionals in the industry. I’m doing my best to build a strong social media presence and I’ve made some really good friendships while networking online so I’m hopeful.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a Paramedical and Cosmetic Tattoo Artist. I specialize in restorative tattoos, tattoos that blend in rather than stand out. I am one of the few artists in the South to offer the Brazilian Stretch Mark and Scar Camouflage tattoo. With this service, I’m able to custom blend a client-specific ink color to match the client’s skin tone. I then tattoo the flesh-toned ink into their stretch marks, covering and concealing them. Once healed, the skin is more smooth, youthful, and radiant, and their stretch marks are less noticeable. Many of my clients silently suffer and struggle with confidence and self-esteem issues because they have stretch marks in places that are not as socially acceptable, like the arms, shoulders, knees, legs. They got stretch marks during puberty or a late growth spurt and never feel comfortable in their own skin. They have tried various creams and lasers over the years with little to no improvement. This is not only a cool concept; it works!
This same concept also works on surgical scars, certain cases of vitiligo, and any other areas of the body where pigment has been lost. I also offer Lip Blush, another cosmetic tattoo service that is relatively new to the beauty industry. Lip Blush is a semi-permanent lip tattoo that can restore color to lips, correct asymmetry and improves the overall shape, and adds definition and contour. It’s also a great alternative to lip fillers.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I’ve learned to think outside of the box and to be innovative as a business owner. It also taught me resilience. I saw so many people lose their businesses, often out of complacency and lack of willingness to implement new strategies. I also saw so many people become creative, recognize and honor their own talent, and it was and still is refreshing to see every day people win by channeling their own talent. So many of us have gifts and talents to share with the world that we never gave credit to. However, because of Covid, people had a “why not and what else can I do with my life” approach strictly out of a will to survive – so many new and creative businesses were birthed.
Covid challenged me to push myself, to be ok with being uncomfortable, and to go after my dreams.
Pricing:
- Stretch Mark and Scar Camouflage: $500-2000 per area
- Consultations: $50
- Lip Blush: currently taking models at $125, introductory rates to follow
Contact Info:
- Email: hi@skynatl.com
- Website: www.skynatl.com
- Instagram: @skynatl
- Facebook: SkynATL
- Twitter: SkynATL
Image Credits
Mhandy Gerard
