Today we’d like to introduce you to vanessa Dougherty.
Hi vanessa, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Hi, I’m Vanessa Dougherty, Owner, lead artist, and instructor here at Restorative Permanent Makeup.
I have been in the cosmetic tattoo industry for over 20 years. Born with a passion for art, I excelled at painting and drawing. At 18 I got a job doing makeup at a local department store and fell in love with makeup application. It was there that I first learned about permanent makeup. I became certified in 2002.
Wanting to learn more, I acquired a position at a local tattoo shop and became a tattoo artist part-time. I continued doing makeup for weddings and special events and did permanent makeup for a local doctor’s office. I worked all three jobs for several years. When I was 30, I started working at a plastic surgery center, and my permanent makeup business exploded! My experience with makeup coupled with my tattoo artistry skills allowed me to give my clients realistic natural-looking results. Working with plastic surgery offices, I began to experiment with camouflaging scars and helping to restore areolas after breast lifts and other reconstructive surgeries.
I am now in my early 40’s and have spent the past 14 years working for more than 3 plastic surgery centers. One of the most notable being the Plastic Surgery Institute owned by Dr. Ordon and Dr. Chopra, from the syndicated TV show “The Doctors”. I recently opened my own location in La Jolla near the beach. There I see clients and operate a permanent makeup academy called RPM Institute where I teach classes and workshops.
I love helping others feel beautiful and confident in their own skin. I enjoy teaching other artists to use their artistic ability to help others so that they can also find a rewarding career. Cosmetic and medical tattooing is my passion!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not! There was of course some bumps along the way! When I started experimenting with medical tattoo out of a need to help people heal from surgery’s, there was very few of us doing it, and virtually no one I could turn to for advice. I developed many of my own techniques through trial and error, and I took me years to get where I am!! but I learned from all my mistakes and now I can help teach others to do things the right way and avoid making the same mistakes that I did in the beginning when I was just getting started.
Another struggle that I had to face was when I moved from palm desert to San Diego When i married my husband. I had to build my clientele all over again in a new city. Many of my client’s travel to me now and for that I am so grateful, but for about 7 years I continued to commute every week to the desert because Icould not afford at the time to lose the income. I worked for a plastic surgeons office in la Jolla for 6 years just using one of his procedure rooms a couple days a week and commuting to the desert as well, all while raising 3 kids! yes it very was stressful juggling it all!!
I was so happy when I finally decided it was time to open Restorative Permanent Makeup here in la Jolla but it was also so scary! for the past 22 years I had always worked out of someone else’s establishment, to open my own business with all the overhead and everything was terrifying! And in a new city where I only had a few years of building up a clientele!! But I took the leap knowing absolutely nothing about running business or managing a team! Entrepreneurship has been a rollercoaster ride to say the least! and i have learned so much and grown so much as a person! I decided to just do it scared, because I felt a passion in my heart to give it a try and I am so glad I did!
now we have been open for about 2 and a half years and things just keep getting better and better! I am so excited for the future!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an artist through and through, I love to paint and won many art contests as a child. I even received 5 art scholarships when I graduated high school. I was always drawn to makeup often bringing friends over and giving them makeovers for fun! it is through makeup application that I realized that it was my passion to help women feel their best. I was a makeup artist professionally when I first discovered permanent makeup, I just had to learn how to do it and I was certified in 2002. I decided that I needed to learn more about tattooing so I became a tattoo artist and worked nights at a local tattoo shop a few days a week, did wedding makeup on weekends and did permanent makeup on my days off all while having 2 babies! It was a hustle in the beginning but I was hooked and eventually once I started collaborating with plastic surgeons I was able build my career just doing cosmetic and medical tattoo. My goal has always been to provide the most natural looking and hyperrealistic results and I just love it!
I would say the work I am most proud of at the moment is the hyperrealistic 3D Areola tattoos that I am able to provide breast cancer survivors. They look so dang real is crazy!!
Also I have been working on my teaching curriculum for the past few years and now were finally launching courses in medical tattooing and the feedback from our students has been amazing!! After 22 years and thousands of procedures I am finally stepping into the role as a mentor in this field and I am so ready for it!
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I would say is that not to let fear or insecurity stop me from pursuing my dreams. every time I have stepped out of my comfort zone for something that I really truly wanted I have been rewarded. Just to have faith in the vision and to never give up on it and to know that as long as I keep showing up for myself and keep putting in the work that it will all pay off.
Contact Info:
- Website: restorativepmu.com
- Instagram: @restorativepmu
- Facebook: Restorative Permanent Makeup
- Youtube: Restorative Permanent Makeup
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/restorative-permanent-makeup-la-jolla
Image Credits
Dena Meeder
