How to Become a Microblading Artist: A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Career in Permanent Makeup
Updated: 10 hours ago
If you’re interested in becoming a microblading artist, you may be wondering where to even begin.
Do you need a cosmetology license? An esthetician license? A business license? Do you need Insurance? An LLC? DBA? Do you need to get a trademark? How long does training take? How much does it cost? How much practice is required? Is it worth it? How do you find your first clients? And, of course, how much money can you realistically make?
The process can seem confusing when you’re first researching the permanent makeup industry, especially because requirements can vary depending on where you live.
This guide will walk you through the basic steps of becoming a microblading artist and, more importantly, what you should consider before choosing your first training course.
Click to jump to a specific section:
First, What Is Microblading?
Microblading is a permanent makeup (PMU) technique that creates hair-like strokes into the eyebrow area to create the appearance of fuller or more defined eyebrows.
Microblading falls under the larger category of permanent makeup, also commonly referred to as cosmetic tattooing.
This distinction is important.
Many beginners specifically search for a “microblading course” because microblading is one of the most recognizable terms in the industry. But eyebrow permanent makeup includes several techniques, including:
Microblading
Powder brows
Combination brows
Nano brows
If your goal is eventually to work professionally with a wide variety of clients, I recommend thinking beyond simply becoming a “microblading artist.”
Your goal should be to become a well-rounded PMU brow artist who understands multiple techniques and knows when—and when not—to use each one.
Step 1: Research the Licensing and Health Requirements Where You Live
Do you need to be certified by a qualified PMU school?
In most states, the legal requirements do not include attending a PMU school—or obtaining a PMU course certificate, which many prospective students often assume is their “license.”
A PMU Certificate is Not Your Legal authorization to Practice Permanent Makeup
The certificate you receive after completing any PMU course is generally a certificate of training or completion—not your government license to practice permanent makeup.
Your instructor teaches you the skill and provides you with a certificate that you completed their training. Your local health department determines what legal requirements you need before legally performing the service.
Regulations vary significantly depending on location.
But in most places you do not need any cosmetology or estheticians license or a specific PMU course certificate.
Depending on where you live, legal requirements may include bloodborne pathogens training, registration with a local health department, and working from an approved body art facility.
And always check the laws where you intend to practice by calling your local health department office.
If you’re in California, click here to find the official government agency responsible for body art or permanent cosmetics in your area.
What About the Person Teaching You? Do PMU Instructors Need a Special Teaching License?
This is another area that causes a lot of confusion for beginners.
People frequently ask me whether my PMU academy is “accredited,” whether I am licensed or certified to teach permanent makeup, and whether they will receive their PMU “license” from me after completing the course.
Permanent makeup education does not necessarily work like cosmetology or esthetics school.
In many areas, like in Los Angeles, there is no separate government-issued PMU instructor license or special teaching permit that a permanent makeup artist must obtain simply to teach other people their techniques.
You may technically be allowed to learn PMU from any independent artist. And later in your career, you may also be able to teach the techniques you’ve learned without obtaining an entirely separate PMU instructor license or any other requirement.
Will I need PMU Insurance To Be A Microblading Artist?
Depending on where you work, some places will already have PMU insurance that covers you, other places will require you to get your own insurance. If they don’t cover you under their insurance or if they don’t require you to have insurance, it may still be a good idea to get PMU insurance to protect yourself financially when something goes wrong. Better safe than sorry!
How Much Does Permanent Makeup Insurance Cost?
There is no single price for permanent makeup insurance.
Cost depends on the provider, coverage limits, services offered, location, business structure, claims history, and other factors.
However PMU insurance usually cost around $40-$100/mo.
Don’t use this price as a quote for what yours will cost, though. Insurance pricing and coverage can change, so contact insurers directly and compare what each policy actually includes.
Here’s a good popular PMU insurance many artists use: https://www.ppibcorp.com
Do I Need a Business License?
Not necessarily if you’re an employee working for someone else. But if you're independently operating your own business even if it’s inside someone else’s studio, then you need to register your business to obtain a local business license/tax registration in your city.
In the city of Los Angeles, you can register your business online here, and you’ll get your business license/tax certificate right away.
The business license/tax certificate is to pay local business taxes but this should not be confused with your federal or state income-tax obligations.
Local business taxes are paid annually for simply having the privilege of operating a business within a particular city or jurisdiction. The amount of money you’ll pay depends on the type of business and gross receipts.
However, the local business tax is not a big additional tax bill. The amount is actually pretty small compared with what people usually picture when they hear “business tax.”
For a PMU artist operating in the City of Los Angeles, the current rate is $4.25 for every $1,000 of taxable gross receipts, or 0.425% of gross receipts.
Examples would look roughly like this:
PMU gross revenue | LA City business tax |
$50,000 | $212.50* |
$100,000 | $425.00* |
$150,000 | $637.50 |
$250,000 | $1,062.50 |
$500,000 | $2,125.00 |
But here’s the important part: the first two examples marked with an asterisk could actually be $0 because Los Angeles has a Small Business Exemption. If your total worldwide gross receipts are $100,000 or less and you are properly registered and file your annual renewal on time, you can qualify to owe no City business tax.
Do I Need an LLC?
Forming an LLC is not automatically required simply because you become a permanent makeup artist.
Many independent PMU artists initially operate as sole proprietors, which is basically the default individual-business structure. In California, there is no separate application you file to create a sole proprietorship. If you start operating a business by yourself without forming another business entity, such as an LLC or corporation, you’re generally operating as a sole proprietor.
For example, imagine someone named Jane decides to start doing PMU independently:
Jane starts accepting her own PMU clients → she hasn’t formed an LLC or corporation → she’s operating as a sole proprietor.
Don’t let someone convince you that you need to form an LLC before you’ve even taken your first PMU class just because “real businesses have LLCs.”
If you’re deciding purely based on simplicity, operating as a sole proprietor is generally easier and less expensive than forming an LLC.
An LLC requires additional registration, filings, and ongoing costs. Plus California currently charges an $800 annual LLC tax, even if the LLC isn’t making a profit.
You can always research your options and decide what structure makes sense for your situation.
If you decide for an LLC, you can apply for it on Bizfile Online if you're in California.
Do You Need An Employer Identification Number (EIN)?
Depending on how you structure your business, you may need to register with the IRS to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN). For example, businesses with employees, partnerships, and corporations generally need an EIN. A sole proprietor or single-member LLCs without employees may not be required to obtain one, although they can choose to do so. An EIN is free to obtain directly from the IRS. You can get it through here:
Do You Need a DBA (Doing Business As)?
If you’re operating as sole proprietorship using a business name other than your legal name, you may need to file a Fictitious Business Name (FBN), commonly called a DBA, with your county. For example, if Jane Smith operates her PMU business as “Perfect Brows Studio,” she may need to register that fictitious business name.
The relationship is essentially:
Legal owner: Jane Smith
DBA/Fictitious Business Name: Perfect Brows Studio
Los Angeles County says an individual doing business for profit under a fictitious name different from their legal name falls under its Fictitious Business Name filing rules. And therefore has to file for a DBA.
It’s basically a public registration saying, “This person is the owner behind this business name here in LA county.”
You file for the Fictitious Business Name Statement with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. The current filing fee is $26 for one business name and one registrant. You can do the filing online here:
If you form an LLC do you need a DBA?
LLCs, corporations, partnerships and other business structures may also use a DBA when operating under a name different from their legal registered business name.
For example:
Scenario 1:
Your registered LLC is: Perfect Brows Studio LLC
And you operate publicly as: Perfect Brows Studio LLC
You’re using the LLC’s actual legal name, so you generally wouldn’t need a DBA
Scenario 2:
Your registered LLC is: Jane Smith Enterprises LLC
But your website, signs, receipts, advertising, etc. operate under: Perfect Brows Studio
Now the LLC is doing business under a different name. Perfect Brows Studio would be the fictitious business name/DBA of Jane Smith Enterprises LLC.
It would essentially be:
Legal entity: Jane Smith Enterprises LLC
DBA: Perfect Brows Studio
Do You Have To Trademark Your Business Name?
Trademarking the business name is yet another separate thing. However, you do not have to register a trademark just to operate your PMU business. Trademarking is not a requirement.
Trademark registration is primarily about protecting your business name or logo as a brand from confusingly similar use by others for related goods and services.
Just registering a business name with a DBA or with an LLC doesn’t by itself give you the same nationwide trademark rights as a federal trademark registration.
If you don't trademark your business name, anyone could use it as their DBA or as their LLC in another county or state.
You can apply for a trademark directly through here: USPTO Trademark Center
How can you know if the name you want to use for your business is not already in use or taken as a DBA, LLC or trademarked?
You shouldn’t just invent a cute PMU name, make a logo, order a giant sign, and assume the name is yours.
The confusing part is that there isn’t one giant database that answers “Is this business name taken?” An LLC name, DBA, and trademarks are different systems.
California explicitly warns that its LLC/corporation name availability process doesn’t check trademarks or DBAs.
So theoretically, someone could get a California LLC name accepted and still have a trademark problem with someone else’s brand.
The government filing offices aren’t necessarily doing the trademark clearance for you. Someone could successfully register paperwork and still discover later that their branding conflicts with someone else’s trademark.
And the reverse concept matters too: just because you don’t find an exact federal trademark doesn’t automatically mean no one’s already using it as a DBA or LLC.
So before choosing your PMU business name, search it before you invest money into logos, signs, websites, business cards, or branding.
Check your state’s business-entity database, your county’s Fictitious Business Name/DBA records, and the USPTO federal trademark database. You should also search Google and social media for businesses already using the same or a confusingly similar name.
The USPTO itself says a comprehensive trademark clearance search involves multiple sources, not just its federal database.
Do I Need a Separate Business Bank Account?
If you operate as a sole proprietor, you generally are not required simply because you started a business to open a separate business bank account. However, keeping a separate account is highly recommended because it makes it much easier to track income, expenses and taxes.
If you form a separate legal entity, such as an LLC or corporation, you should keep the business’s money separate from your personal finances and open an account for the business.
Okay… So How Do You Actually Learn Permanent Makeup? Online Courses or In-Person?
The way you learn best will depend on you.
Some people are excellent independent learners and can absorb a surprising amount through online education. Others need someone physically standing beside them, watching their movements and correcting them in real time.
But if you’re a complete beginner, learning permanent makeup entirely online can be extremely difficult.
For that reason, I generally recommend starting with a high-quality in-person beginner training that includes supervised practice on a real model.
After developing your foundation, online courses can be great for continuing your education, learning additional techniques, or improving specific areas where you’re struggling.
How Long Does Training Take, And How Much Does It Cost?
Permanent makeup is very different from traditional cosmetology school.
You don’t necessarily need years of beauty school to perform permanent makeup.
Many in-person beginner PMU trainings are approximately 3 days long, although you’ll find everything from one-day courses to 7 day courses or even longer.
Here’s something beginners need to know:
More training days do not automatically mean better training.
It’s very easy to compare two courses and think:
“This course is seven days and that one is only three. I must be learning more in the seven-day course.”
That’s not always the case.
Likewise, price doesn’t determine quality.
In-person PMU training can cost thousands of dollars. Many multi-day brow courses fall somewhere around the $2,500–$4,000 range, although prices vary considerably.
A more expensive course isn’t automatically better. A cheaper course isn’t automatically worse.
Instead of comparing courses by the number of days and the price tag alone, compare the actual education, instructor’s work, class size, techniques covered, student reviews, and support you receive after training.
Don’t Expect to Master Permanent Makeup in Just A Few Days
A 3 day course can be great. It can teach you a tremendous amount of information.
But it cannot give you three years of experience.
Be especially cautious of PMU courses marketed as an effortless way to start making thousands of dollars immediately after getting certified.
That is one of the biggest red flags I would tell a beginner to watch for. 🚩
Becoming certified does not mean you’re ready.
Getting your certificate is exciting, but the certificate itself doesn’t make you an artist.
You could take the best brow course out there and still not be ready to independently work on clients the next day.
And that’s completely normal.
A well structured 3 day course could be enough time for the instructor to give and show you all the necessary information. But 3 days is not enough time for the student to actually dominate the techniques.
Learning a skill is not as simple as practicing it for a few days and then boom, you got it. After getting certified, you still have to put in the time and effort to develop and practice the skill.
Your PMU training should therefore give you enough knowledge and understanding that when the class ends, you know what you’re supposed to practice, how you’re supposed to practice it, what you’re looking for, and who to ask when something doesn’t make sense.
You shouldn’t leave believing you’ve mastered PMU.
But you also shouldn’t leave feeling as though you’re missing half the information necessary to continue learning.
So How Much Practice Will You Actually Need?
Becoming a skilled PMU artist happens through continued practice, real client experience, and—most importantly—learning from your healed results.
There is no specific amount of time of practice that automatically makes someone a good artist. Everyone progresses at a different pace.
Some artists may work in PMU for years and complete hundreds of procedures while continuing to struggle with technique, consistency, or healed results. Meanwhile, another artist may show significant improvement within just a few months.
The difference isn’t simply how long you’ve been doing PMU. It’s what you’re learning from the work you’re doing.
Your ability to recognize mistakes, understand why they happened, make adjustments, and evaluate how your work actually heals will have a much greater impact on your growth than simply counting how many procedures you’ve completed.
Practice matters—but intentional practice matters more.
How Many PMU Courses Will I Have to Take?
There isn’t one number that applies to everyone.
It depends on your individual abilities, how well you chose your first training, how much you practice, the quality of your mentorship after training, and where you struggle.
As you gain experience, you may decide to take additional education in specific areas you want to improve.
But don’t feel pressured to collect certificates just for the sake of collecting certificates.
Taking more courses does not automatically make you a better artist.
What matters is whether you’re actually learning, practicing, evaluating your healed work, identifying weaknesses, and improving. Also choosing a strong, great course from the beginning can also decrease the number of additional courses you may have to take later on.
Is Becoming a Permanent Makeup Artist Worth It?
This is one of those questions nobody can honestly answer for you.
Some artists will tell you getting into PMU was the best decision they ever made.
Others will tell you the industry is not worth it.
For me personally, it was worth it.
But the fact that it worked for me doesn’t mean it will automatically work for you.
This is where I think prospective artists need to evaluate themselves honestly.
Permanent makeup requires much more than learning how to put pigment into skin.
Ask yourself:
How strong is your natural sense of eyebrow shape and proportion?
Do you think you're good at filling in and shaping eyebrows?
Do people compliment the way you do your own brows?
When you see someone else’s eyebrows, do you naturally notice asymmetry, proportion, placement, or ways the shape or style could be improved?
How good are you at noticing the difference between good and bad PMU work?
But artistic ability isn’t the only thing that matters.
How comfortable are you with social media?
Marketing?
Photography and video?
Editing?
Technology?
Research?
Networking?
Communicating with clients?
How good are you at recognizing questionable information instead of automatically believing whatever an educator or popular artist tells you?
Running a PMU business requires a surprisingly wide range of skills.
You do not need to already be excellent at all of them.
That’s important.
Maybe eyebrow shaping doesn’t come naturally to you yet, but you’re excellent at marketing, networking, video, and building relationships.
Those skills can help you tremendously while you develop your technical abilities.
Or maybe you’re naturally an excellent brow artist but terrible at social media.
Great work can still become your advantage.
This also explains something beginners sometimes find confusing: the busiest artist isn’t automatically the most technically skilled artist.
Someone with average technical work but exceptional marketing may be booked consistently at premium prices.
Someone producing beautiful work may struggle because nobody knows they exist.
Technical ability and business ability are different skill sets.
The more strengths you bring into the industry, the easier your path may be. But weaknesses aren’t necessarily reasons not to start—they’re areas you’ll need to recognize and intentionally develop.
So instead of simply asking:
“Is permanent makeup worth it?”
A better question may be:
“Do I understand what this career actually requires, and am I willing and able to develop the skills I don’t currently have?”
How Do You Find Your First Clients As A New Microblading Artist?
For a brand-new microblading/PMU artist, the hardest part is usually the “I need clients to build a portfolio, but clients want to see a portfolio before booking me” problem. 😭
The goal at the beginning isn’t necessarily to maximize profit. It’s to get enough real procedures, healed results, testimonials, photos/videos, and referrals that eventually strangers feel comfortable paying full price.
Ways a new microblading artist can find clients
Start with models instead of waiting for full-price clients. Post in local Facebook and community groups. Look for neighborhood groups, local beauty groups, mom groups, women’s groups, and model-call groups. Instead of repeatedly posting “BOOK WITH ME,” make the offer specific: “I’m a licensed PMU artist in [city] building my healed portfolio and looking for three powder brow models this month.” Include any model work you’ve done during training and clearly state the model price. You can even charge only enough to cover supplies at first. The discount should have an end point, though—you don’t want to become permanently known as the $100 brow artist.
Use your personal network. Friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors, former coworkers, acquaintances, and friends-of-friends can be some of your first clients. Don’t just ask, “Do you want your brows done?” Tell people you’re building your portfolio and ask them to share your work with anyone they know who has been considering permanent makeup.
Build a simple website early. It doesn’t have to be enormous. Include your location, services, pricing or starting prices, FAQs, policies, and booking information.
Network with complementary beauty professionals. Hairstylists, lash artists, estheticians, nail technicians, makeup artists, injectors, tattoo artists, and salon owners already interact with your potential clients. Genuine cross-referrals can work extremely well. You can refer clients to them too, so the relationship isn’t one-sided.
Consider renting inside an established beauty location. Being surrounded by other professionals gives you exposure to people who already spend money on beauty services. If those professionals don’t perform PMU themselves, their clients may ask them where to get their brows done.
Create business cards or referral cards—but place them strategically. Giving 500 cards to random people isn’t necessarily useful. Leaving them with a hairstylist or esthetician who genuinely recommends you can be far more valuable.
Give referrals an incentive. Your first clients can become your marketing team. For example, offer them $25–$50 toward a future touch-up or another service for each new paying client they refer. A happy client walking around with your brows is essentially advertising your work every day.
Run a small local ad once you have good content. Meta/Instagram ads can introduce your work to people within a reasonable distance of your studio. But build a decent portfolio first, then advertise your strongest transformations and healed results rather than relying entirely on promotional graphics.
Offer more than microblading. A beginner who only knows one technique limits the number of clients they can appropriately serve. Learning machine shading/powder brows and eventually combination or nano techniques gives you more options when someone isn’t a good candidate for traditional microblading.
Prioritize video. Especially in PMU, video helps potential clients see that the work hasn’t simply been heavily edited in a perfectly selected photograph.
For your first clients, document everything!
Those first appointments aren’t just appointments.
One model could potentially give you:
before photos + mapping footage
fresh results
a testimonial
healed photos/video
a touch-up result
That’s an enormous amount of marketing material from one person. Suddenly 20 models is not just 20 posts. It could easily be 100 posts.
And don’t hide the fact that you’re new
This is a mistake I see beginners make conceptually: they think they need to make themselves look established before they’re established.
You don’t.
Something like “I’m newly certified and currently accepting a limited number of discounted models while I expand my portfolio” gives people a perfectly reasonable explanation for the lower price.
Then gradually increase pricing as your experience, demand and portfolio grow.
How Much Money Can a Permanent Makeup Artist Make?
There is no reliable answer that applies to everyone.
Your income will depend on your location, pricing, demand, technical ability, reputation, marketing, expenses, and how consistently you’re actually booked.
For most areas, a beginner artist could charge around $250. You may find yourself still charging $250 even after you’ve been doing brows for quite some time.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re bad at brows. Marketing is also a skill. Someone with less brow skills than you could be more booked and busy charging $1,000+ just because they’re better at presenting themselves, content creation and going viral.
How much money did I charge when I was new?
When I started, I charged $250 for new clients and $100 for touch-ups during my first month or two.
As I gained experience, I gradually increased my prices:
$250 became $300.
Then $350.
Then $400.
And I continued increasing my pricing as my experience, results, portfolio, and demand grew.
Six years into my career, my current regular price is $875 for a new brow procedure and $375 for touch-ups.
I also began teaching during my second year and have charged approximately $3,000 for my trainings ever since.
Interestingly, teaching wasn’t originally what I had in mind.
But when your own clients and complete strangers repeatedly begin asking whether you’ll teach them your technique, you start paying attention.
And if, at the same time, you begin noticing gaps in the education being offered within your industry—things you believe you could explain better or support students with differently—it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the possibility of teaching.
My Advice to a New Artist: Document Your Healed Results From the Beginning
Fresh results show what your work looked like immediately after the procedure.
Healed results show your skill.
If I could give a new artist one piece of advice that can dramatically improve both their work and their future marketing, it would be this:
Document your healed results.
Documenting healed work allows you to see patterns in your own results.
When clients return for touch-ups, don’t just look at their eyebrows and immediately start tattooing again.
Study them.
Ask yourself:
Are my brows consistently healing too light?
Too dark?
Too cool?
Are my hairstrokes remaining distinct, or are they beginning to blend together?
Is my shading healing evenly?
Are certain skin types retaining differently?
Am I consistently having the same problem?
You cannot improve what you never evaluate.
And when you’re new, you’re going to make mistakes you may not yet have enough experience to recognize.
That’s one reason access to an experienced mentor can be so valuable during the beginning of your career.
Over time, your healed portfolio will become one of the most valuable tools you have—it shows clients your true skill level. Eventually, it may even become part of the reason other artists begin asking you to teach them.
What Should You Look for in a PMU Brow Course?
Before investing thousands of dollars into training, look beyond the marketing.
Ask yourself:
Does the instructor show plenty of healed work—and does that healed work actually look good?
Will I work on my own live model under the instructor’s supervision?
How many students are in each class?
Are there independent reviews from previous students?
Will I learn all the PMU brow techniques—microblading, powder, combination, nano, color correction, and removal—or will I have to purchase separate courses to learn all of them?
And one of the most overlooked questions:
What happens after the class ends?
Can you contact your instructor when you’re practicing?
Can you ask for help when you’re preparing for your first clients?
Will someone actually critique your work?
Or will you simply be added to a Facebook group containing thousands of students and hope your instructor eventually sees your question?
A beautiful training studio, huge social-media following, expensive kit, viral videos, and hundreds of beautiful fresh brow transformations do not necessarily tell you how much education or individual support you’re going to receive.
Look beyond how well the course is marketed and evaluate what the course actually teaches.
A good beginner course should teach much more than just microblading hairstrokes.
Ideally, your education should also expose you to multiple brow techniques.
Why?
Because your future clients will not all have the same skin, natural eyebrows, previous permanent makeup, goals, lifestyle, or suitability for hairstrokes.
An artist who only knows one procedure has one solution for every client.
An artist who understands multiple techniques can make a more informed decision about what may actually work best for the person sitting in front of them.
Should Beginners Learn Nano Brows First?
Personally, I don’t recommend a standalone nano-brow course if you’re a complete beginner as your first PMU education.
You’ll have a much stronger foundation if your beginner education also teaches fundamental techniques such as microblading and powder brows rather than just nano strokes.
Machine hairstrokes can be technically demanding, and trying to master them without learning the fundamental techniques can make the learning process unnecessarily difficult.
So, Where Should You Start?
If you’re seriously considering entering the permanent makeup industry, don’t rush into the first course you find.
Take your time choosing your education.
Study artists.
Study healed results.
Compare courses carefully.
Don’t simply search for the longest course or the cheapest microblading class near you.
And most importantly, don’t choose your education based on the fanciest studio, fanciest website, biggest kit, or largest Instagram following.
Your first course won’t turn you into an experienced artist overnight.
But a strong first course can give you the knowledge and foundation you need to begin developing into one.
If doing brows is something you genuinely see yourself pursuing, your first education can have a major influence on the habits you develop as an artist.
Before choosing a course, I recommend reading my guide on how to choose the right PMU brow course. It goes over what to look for and how to spot red flags many students overlook.
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