4.29.2013

Hair Follicle Simulation

Before & After - Hair Follicle Simulation

Did you know that 35 million men and 21 million women are experiencing hair loss in the U.S.? How about the fact that people who are losing their hair lose an average of 100 hair follicles per day? People go to different lengths to try different techniques to hide their hair loss: Rogaine, Wigs, Toupees, and even Hair Transplant Surgery. One technique that most people don't know even exists is Hair Follicle Simulation using tattooing techniques. 

A trained cosmetic & corrective tattooist has the ability to use special tattooing techniques to hide your hair loss. For those who are experiencing thinning hair, tattooing your scalp can give the illusion of a full head of hair. For those who are experiencing a receding hair line, tattooing very small, finite dots can simulate individual hair follicles and make it look like you have a very natural buzz cut. Some people have gone through the very invasive Hair Transplant Surgery and have a strip scar across the back of their head. Medical needling techniques, followed by hair follicle simulation can allow the scar to shrink and make the back of your head look like a natural head of hair.

No matter what kind level of hair loss you are experiencing, a competent, highly trained cosmetic & corrective tattooist can be the answer to your problems. I have been able to help many people camouflage their hair loss and/or hide their hair transplant scars. To see some examples of hair follicle simulation, visit my website.





4.21.2013

Scar Correction & Camouflaging


- Do you have an embarrassing scar that you are uncomfortable with? 
- Do you have a scar that brings back old memories from an accident, surgery or negative time in your life? 
- Do you have acne scars on your face/body or stretch marks from a pregnancy or weight gain?
- Are you unhappy with the tattletale signs from plastic surgery? 


(L) BEFORE face-lift scar                 (R) AFTER face-lift scar

Many of the scars that I have camouflaged have been from surgeries (breast reductions & lifts, implants, face lifts, brow lifts, and more), childhood accidents and more. It's amazing how much the removal of a scar can really help with one's self-esteem. 

My daughter, who is now 25 years old, broke her arm back when she was in the third grade and then again in the fourth grade – my little adventurer! The second time around, the bone pierced the skin. My poor baby had to have surgery and spent a few nights in the hospital. She now has a scar on her arm that isn't very noticeable but also not pretty. One day, when she is ready, I will camouflage it. Her scar reminds her of all the pain she went through - the surgery, the cast, and even kids teasing her for swinging on a rope swing like Tarzan. As a mom, I feel privileged that I can do that for my daughter someday - erase the trace of a bad memory. 

Though events like that will never be forgotten, the constant reminder when it is seen in the mirror can be masked. I have been able to help so many people who have scars or markings from different events in their life; accidents, surgeries - you name it! I am glad I am able to help mask those unwanted reminders of things that we are unable to forget but that we can cover up.

Not all scars are from the list above. Many men and women have scars on their body from protecting our country. It is truly and honor and privilege to be able to provide services to our soldiers returning home.

For more information on medical needling, scar correction and camouflage, visit my website FoolingMotherNature.com or do not hesitate to contact me at athena@foolingmothernature.com


1,500-Year-Old Mummy Found in Peru Pyramid


I found this article when it was published in 2006 in the LA Times. I framed it and had it in my office for many years and decided that I should post it as a blog because it is truly fascinating. The photos     are incredible as you can clearly see the tattoos on her arm.  Enjoy this article written                             by Thomas Maugh II with photos by Mariana Bazo.

_________________


1,500-Year-Old Mummy Found in Peru Pyramid

BY: THOMAS H. MAUGH II

Clearly a member of royalty, the heavily tattooed Moche woman was buried with jewelry, weapons and a sacrificed slave at her feet.

Archeologists in Peru have discovered a 15-century-old mummy of a tattooed Moche woman entombed with a dazzling collection of weapons and jewelry.

The woman, clearly a member of royalty, was buried with a sacrificed teenage slave at her feet and surrounded by multiple signs of femininity, including precious jewelry, golden needles and bejeweled spindles and spindle whorls for spinning cotton.

But her burial bundle also contained gilded copper-clad war clubs and finely crafted spear throwers -- objects never before seen in a Moche woman's tomb.

"Why would a woman be accompanied by weapons?" said archeologist John Verano of Tulane University, who reported the find in the June issue of National Geographic magazine. "It's somewhat of a mystery who she is."

Given the quantity and unusual preservation of the artifacts, he said, "it is going to take archeologists years of work to try to unravel the mystery."

UCLA archeologist Christopher B. Donnan, who has been working for years in the nearby Jequetepeque Valley, said many of the burial goods were identical to royal artifacts he had discovered there.

"There are implications of contact between royalty in two different valleys," he said. "We've never been able to recognize something like that before."

The find suggests that the Moche, like other South American cultures, cemented alliances between cities through intermarriage.

The mummy was discovered by Verano and Peruvian archeologists from the National Institute of Culture at a site called El Brujo, or the Wizard, on the Peruvian coast about an hour's drive north of Trujillo and more than 300 miles north of the capital, Lima. The site was occupied by a variety of groups from about 2500 BC through the Spanish colonial period, when it was abandoned.

The Moche flourished there from about AD 100 to 700. They were primarily farmers who diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals.

A sophisticated culture, the Moche raised huge pyramids of sun-dried adobe bricks, laying their noblest dead inside. Although they had no written language, their artifacts document their lives with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies.

The mummy was discovered in a pyramid called Huaca Cao Viejo, a massive structure 100 feet tall. It was built in several phases, with successive generations enlarging it.

The mummy, which dates to about AD 450, was placed on a covered patio that was subsequently buried under about 15 feet of adobe bricks, which protected it from both the weather and looters.

The mummy bundle itself "was huge, obviously symbolic of her status," Verano said. But to remove it, the team first had to take out a skeleton lying alongside it.

"It was a well-preserved sacrifice, with a rope around its neck -- the girl had been strangled," he said. Some servants were sacrificed at funerals, while others volunteered to accompany their masters into the afterlife.

It took eight men to lift the bundle from the grave and carry it to a nearby lab for inspection. The team then carefully removed the hundreds of yards of cotton cloth that encased the mummy, revealing the body of a woman who was about 5 feet tall -- average for the time -- and in her mid- to late 20s.

She was apparently in good health with no signs of nutritional deficiencies, although she had one tooth that would have become abscessed if she had lived longer. Her abdominal skin was wrinkled and collapsed, and bone scarring indicated that the woman had given birth at least once.

With no obvious cause of death, Verano speculated that it was "most likely some sudden infectious disease, like pneumonia or bronchitis, that wouldn't leave a mark on the skeleton."

The woman was heavily tattooed on her forearms, upper arms, the backs of her hands and on her ankles and feet. Some tattoos were of mythical animals that were also depicted on murals at the site. There are also geometric and other designs that "so far, are hard to figure out," he said.

Archeologists cannot effectively compare the tattoos to those on other corpses, Verano said, because most burials previously discovered are simply skeletons with little or no skin remaining. The few tattoos that have been observed on skin fragments from Moche women have different designs, he said.

The woman was adorned with multiple necklaces, some of gold and others of turquoise and quartz. She had multiple nose ornaments, earrings in the form of gold crosses and four tiaras or crowns, each with a different design of a fanged face.

Two tall, cylindrical headdresses and several ceramics in the tomb were clearly from Jequetepeque, Donnan said. For the headdresses, in particular, "We know of no other place where they were made and used," he said.

Because the headdresses were generally worn only by men, Donnan said, their presence suggests that a prince from Jequetepeque may have come to El Brujo to woo or wed the woman or, at the very least, to honor her after her death.

4.12.2013

Favorite's Fridays: Grateful 160


When is the last time you thought of all the things you are grateful for? If your answer is Thanksgiving then this is a great "favorite" for you. 

I stumbled upon GRATEFUL 160 when I went to the Spark & Hustle conference last year. One of the speakers mentioned this website and I had to look it up. The "160" in Grateful 160 is the amount of characters that you can reply with - like a tweet. 

Grateful 160 is an amazing service that allows you to think of all the things you are grateful for. They will send you an email once or twice a day that reads:

"Hi there Athena! What do you have to be thankful for this morning?" 

You simply reply to the email and it creates an online thankfulness journal for you. At the end of the week you will get an email that will show you all of your entries for that week. You can also log in to the website to see all of your entries. 

I think this is a GREAT tool for anyone. It gives you the opportunity to take a moment and think of something you are grateful for on a daily basis. What an amazing thing! Sign up - it's FREE!




taken from their website- 
"grateful160 is a gratitude journal that gives you an email or SMS/textnudge up to four times daily to count your blessings. You reply with an email or text of your own with a short reflection of gratitude which is stored in your journal.

Each week you get an email summary of all you had to be thankful over the week or you can access your journal online"

4.08.2013

Three Common Concerns About Permanent Makeup

Three common concerns about permanent makeup & cosmetic tattooing:

1) Is it painful?

While everyone has a different pain threshold. Most clients feel nothing, some feel a slight tickle and few feel a minor, tolerable, discomfort. Every permanent makeup procedure begins with a topical anesthetic to the appropriate area. If pain is a concern, do not drink coffee, alcohol or caffeinated beverages before a procedure. Caffeine can make you jittery and uncomfortable during a procedure. 

2) If it is permanent, then I can't change my look or style right?

Cosmetic tattooing is not to replace your conventional cosmetics on a daily basis but to enhance your natural features. You can always apply traditional, conventional makeup over your permanent makeup without hurting it! Permanent Makeup is intended to enhance your natural features and allow you to look naturally fabulous when waking up, while working out and every moment in between. While some do choose to use permanent makeup as a replacement to conventional cosmetics, it is typically due to allergies from conventional cosmetics, or an extremely busy lifestyle. 


3) Do you use clean needles?

I use brand new, never opened needles on every single client. Each time you come in for a procedure or follow up appointment, a brand new, never before used needle is used. At the end of your procedure, your needle is thrown away (in a special sharps container). No needle, barrel or tube is used twice. 


To learn more, visit
FOOLINGMOTHERNATURE.COM

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4.04.2013

Up And At 'Em

Getting my hair colored by
the fabulous Carrie Jo @ Addison
Salon in San Francisco! 

Well, the cat's out of the bag. I recently had my second hip replacement surgery, I am doing wonderful and I wanted you to know!

Four years ago, my friend and I were in a car accident that totaled our car. In the accident I ended up hurting both of my hips and have had them both replaced now. I am thrilled that it is over, done with and I am almost ready to my dancing shoes back on!

My surgery was on Tuesday, March 26th and on Saturday, only 4 days after my surgery, my daughter and I had a girly day at the hair salon and walked a little bit. That night I went to dinner and a movie with my family too. (We saw Olympus Has Fallen - great movie)

Thank you for the many text messages, emails, phone calls and smoke signals that you have sent to me during my recovery. I am happy to report that I am out and about, back at work, and have my daughter and son-in-law helping me, chauffeuring me around and taking care of me. 

See you soon! 
xoxo, 
Athena Karsant



With my baby girl at the salon!
Mommy & Me beauty day!


Right after my eyelash tint!



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