We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natalie Dee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

My story is different from most cosmetic tattooers out there, meaning I don’t have a background in cosmetology or aesthetics. I’ve actually been a bartender for 10 years at Barbarella in downtown Austin. I have a degree in business and had no idea what I was going to do. I first heard about Microblading in 2016 and was very insecure about my eyebrows (basically had Sharpie brows), so I had to try it. It was such a new and unique thing at the time that I did a ton of research on it before actually deciding that’s what I wanted to learn how to do, but there were not many places to train and it was expensive. I saved up some money and did my first training in 2019. I left the training having NO idea what I was doing (my poor sister can vouch for my bad brow job). I knew I still wanted to do brows, but was so insecure in a market that was growing rapidly. I ended up doing more trainings and started taking clients at a tattoo shop when the pandemic hit. After many setbacks, I finally reached out to Kenzie Perez, the owner of Fresh Cosmetic Studio and took her advanced training course. She is absolutely amazing and knows the ins and outs of her craft and gave me the encouragement I needed to get going. If I could go back in time, I would have reached out to her when I first decided to get into the industry. I definitely wish I would have started this career sooner and not held myself back because it is a very saturated market now, but I would not have been as humble or learned from my mistakes if I had not experienced them.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m a cosmetic tattooer at Fresh Cosmetic Studio! For those that do not know, cosmetic tattooing is permanent or semi-permanent makeup that heals very naturally and looks realistic (no more Sharpie brows). I offer Microblading, Combo Brows, Lip Blush, faux freckles, tooth gems, and brow lamination. I love making people feel better about themselves and more confident in their own skin. Everyone has insecurities and sometimes what seems like a minor change- can be a huge transformation in their eyes and I want to make it happen! I’m super communicative with my clients about the processes I’m doing so they can feel more comfortable with me and I listen intently to their wishes while also using my continued education to do what’s best for them in the long run. I love my clients and treat them as if we’re all friends because after a couple hours in an appointment – we basically are.

I honestly think that what sets me apart from other PMU artists is that I started as a bartender first aka from scratch. I think it has made me extremely humble (to a fault), but I’ve had to work harder to be a better artist because that did not come naturally. I also think coming from a tattoo shop and respecting the history of tattooing – like starting as an apprentice and geeking out on machines, needles, pigments, and skin types makes a difference because what we do is BOTH beauty & tattooing.

The biggest highlight of my career is hands down working at Fresh Cosmetic Studio. I had been following Kenzie Perez for years before she opened her studio in 2021 and wanted to apply, but didn’t think I was good enough to work with such talented artists. I took her training class not expecting anything, and came out of it with a whole new career. I learned lip blushing from her as well and will continue to keep learning and growing.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My main goal is to bring people confidence whether it be adding hair strokes to sparse brows or changing the tint of their lips. It sounds so simple, but it can also be a game changer. I see cosmetic tattooing as a subtle way to feel more like yourself by enhancing your natural beauty. I would like to get more into restorative tattooing in the future and learn more about nano brows, SMP, areola tattooing, and scar camouflage. I want to help create hyper-realistic features for clients that have undergone surgeries, illness, or hair loss. Cosmetic tattooing can bring people so many different options for things they may be insecure about or just want to flat out change. The industry is constantly growing and there’s so many services to learn!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’ve faced many challenges on my journey, but what is life without them? Things will always change, plans fail, life is crazy. After the pandemic, a broken hand, and the snow-pocalypse flood that left me with no belongings – I wanted to quit everything. But you just have to keep moving forward. I kept working, training, learning, and trying to be better. Starting a business and building up a clientele from scratch is definitely the hardest part of my career now, and tattooing faces is not the easiest job in the world! But I’m so thankful for any appointment I get and I feel very grateful to be where I’m at in my life now at Fresh Cosmetic Studio.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.natdeebrows.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natdeebrows/
• Other: https://www.freshcosmeticstudio.com/

Image Credits
Headshot by Dylan Mott