2023 was all about lip blushing. 2024 was all about machine hair strokes. Will cheek blush tattooing be THE PMU treatment of 2025?
All signals say yes. The TikTok beauty community has really been into blush this year, and it seems we’ve ditched our contour sticks and got our flushed, blushed looks on. And as great as all those new products that flooded the shelves are, how awesome would it be if that refreshing rosy effect didn’t wash off in the evening?
Well, Savannah Messenger makes it happen. She’s been making waves with her cheek blush tattoo technique for a while now, but ever since one of her works made TikTok go wild, we’ve been wanting to hear her story.
Our Editor-in-Chief Emily spoke to Savannah to bring you some inspiration from this NY Post and Vogue-featured PMU pioneer.
How It All Started
Savannah comes from a background of traditional tattooing. She herself has a number of gorgeous tattoos, so she has personal experience observing how colors behave in the skin over time. In 2019, she started her PMU journey by mastering lip blush, a service that wasn’t really that popular at the time (it was still all about brows), so she was into more niche treatments right from the start.
That same year, she started developing and perfecting her dark lip neutralization technique, which was an abstract idea for most artists and a real step outside the box. Over time, as she encountered different clients and their wishes, she wasn’t afraid to experiment in order to fulfill their beauty dreams.
Savannah’s Healed Work – Client Selfie
And that’s how Savannah’s cheek blush tattoo was created:
I had a client who saw cheek tint/blush tattooing done in another country and asked me to do it for her. I did some research, tested a patch on myself, and asked if she wanted to be a model for the service. She was fully aware this was a first-time experiment and was ready to try it. We ended up loving the results and how they looked even long term and then BAM – cheek tint tattoo was born and became a thing!
The treatment was an instant success.
Literally the first person was a huge hit. It turned out better than we both ever imagined.
New Isn’t Scary When You’ve Got the Knowledge
Moving the industry forward and providing clients with something new and exciting means leaving your comfort zone, so I was curious to know how Savannah felt doing that first-ever cheek blush tattoo:
It wasn’t scary at all! I actually come from a well-rounded tattoo background, so it made sense to me which technique/needle, etc. would be appropriate for the task. I took a few things I knew from basic traditional tattooing and adjusted them.
But theory means nothing without practice.
I also did a test patch on myself first, too, so I knew what to expect going into it.
When one of her works went viral in October 2024, there was a surge of comments questioning her technique. But the thing about her technique is that it’s super-gentle, as she works with a light hand to maintain the integrity of her client’s skin, plus achieve the watercolor finish, as she calls it.
The pigment should not go deep at all. It should only be buffed into the surface layers of the skin.
Savannah Performing Her Cheek Blush Treatment
The proof that Savannah knew what she was doing right from the beginning is that her success rate is 100%. But as confident as she was in her technique, she couldn’t really know how the skin of the cheeks would react to it.
I made the mistake of getting nervous when the skin looked super red in the beginning and not getting the level of ink retention I wanted because I tattooed way too softly so everything healed light. But it worked out because it’s designed to heal with a watercolor finish and the color is buildable through sessions. I don’t recommend many though, I like the barely there vibe of the tattoo.
Savannah’s Healed Work – Client Selfie
Criticism? You Can’t Let It Get to You
If you’re at all active in the PMU community on social media, you know that anything new that emerges gets a lot of pushback. Sometimes it’s justified and constructive – after all, working on people’s faces is something to be taken seriously.
But if you know what you’re doing is good and have successfully healed work to prove it, criticism is just background noise. At least it is to Savannah.
I’ve always gotten a lot of criticism online so I’m pretty used to it. When I started doing lip neutralization, I faced the same backlash and it’s now my most requested service and I’ve even been recognized internationally for my technique. You can’t let it get to you, you just gotta follow your heart! Most of the time it’s coming from artists that just can’t see outside the box they have been told to stay in.
For Savannah, her clients’ happiness is always the goal, and her studio is a place for creativity and making beauty dreams come true. She believes that’s what the PMU industry should stand for, but that’s not always the case.
The industry is super catty, it’s too bad there isn’t more support out there because by learning more from each other we can help permanent makeup flourish in general and create amazing services together.
From Inspiration to Innovation
But it’s not all negative. Artists like Savannah keep charging forward. It seems that PMU is having its golden age in terms of technological advancement, but with basically any makeup effect already having its permanent version already, is there any room left for innovation?
I think there’s always room for something new! I love to see new services come into the industry. It’s fun and interesting! Although I’m not sure what’s next, I’m always open to anything!
And she wants you to do the same – as long as you’ve got the skills, experience, and a willing client.
My advice to anyone trying to develop something new is to just be open and honest about it. Tell your clients it’s an experiment, let people know what they are really signing up for, and best of luck. As long as you have the education to back it up you can create so many new things. Have fun with it!
Curious to know more about cheek blush? Check out this article (also featuring Savannah!).
