The Ink Girl at Studio Kalon

‼️ Surgery Update Post ‼️

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TLDR: I’m not recovering as quickly as I hoped and will be out of the studio longer than I planned.
This decision has broke me this week and many tears have been shed but I’m also the kind of Service Provider who feels I owe you an in-depth explanation because I thrive on transparency and letting you know I’m a human ❤️ I miss you guys sooooo dang much!!! 😭
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I know I’ve been quiet…honestly if you’ve messaged me in the last month it may have taken me days to message you back. For that I’m incredibly sorry!

I’m going to give you all a quick peek into my headspace and where it’s been after I give you a background on why I had the surgery in the first place.

Back Story:
I was diagnosed with 6th Nerve Palsy in 2016 at the age of 26 after experiencing constant double vision since 2014.
If you’re like me and you like to know WHAT something really is and enjoy a good “rabbit hole” journey through the internet, you can learn all about my condition here:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/sixth-nerve-palsy

If you just like the cliff notes, I’ve screen captured and circled the parts of this article that affect me personally ❤️ Pictures below.

When I was first diagnosed, my head only required a mild tilt to the right to correct the vision however in 2019 the tilt became incredibly noticeable to me and I started wearing thiiiiiiiick prism lenses to drive safely. I refused to wear those glasses outside of driving because I could turn my head and it was fine 😂….it was FINE ok 😂 I’ve added photos taken throughout the years so you can see the progression of the tilt.

I decided I wanted to be a permanent makeup artist in 2021 and genuinely I did NOT realize just how much strain that was going to put on my body with the 6th nerve palsy. I have been tattooing you all in immense pain (like a constant 7 out of 10) and my eye turn has worsened over the last 3 years because of the constant strain. After the Ophthalmologist told me that if I did not do surgery I may be blind in my right eye within 5-10 years, I decided it was time.

I specifically chose the end of May for my surgery because if you’re a tattoo artist or permanent makeup artist in Florida, you KNOW bookings are SLOOOOOOOW in the summer (you guys just don’t want to give up the beach for 2 weeks…I get it 😂)

Surgery Update:
I figured I would give myself 1 full month of downtime and I’m usually a quick healer so that should be plenty of time and then I can get back to doing what I love with my straight eyes and no pain 🎉

I. Was. Wrong. 😭

During my surgery, she injected the inner corner of my eye muscle with a pretty extreme amount of Botox (fun fact, did you know my surgery is what Botox was originally created for?? And here I’ve just been putting it in my forehead 😂)

One of the risk factors of that is some lucky patients are blessed with it seeping to their eye lid and they can’t open their eye for MONTHS until the Botox wears off.

I am “some lucky patients” 😭

While I am able to function quite well through my day to day activities, tattooing at present moment is out of the question.
‼️ I have no solid depth perception right now‼️
I have been practicing with my machine and I can’t hit the same line twice to save my life.
I will NOT take the risk of giving you anything less than perfection, even if all I want to do is return to work. My depth perception WILL return and actually be better than ever but the Botox has to wear off out of my eyelid first 😭

I LOVE my job, I can’t believe this is what I do for a living. But I also love you guys and wouldn’t be able to live with a decision to start tattooing you before I’m actually ready.

I’m HOPING that day will come sooner than later but I will hopefully have more answers on that after my 1 month follow up next week.

If you are absolutely itching for a new fine line tattoo and can’t wait for me (I get it, sometimes you just have that itch and it must be scratched!)
Please contact Jo Rich Beauty and ask for Midian or Jo to help you scratch that itch!

If you need a touchup on your Powder Brows or Lip Blush: Contact Brows by Gia, and Gia can help you! We use the same pigment line and I’m happy to send over your pigment formula to her!

I truly trust all of these ladies and would trust them on my face and with my tattoos so I would also trust them with yours!

Note: Their pricing may vary from mine, please keep that in mind and do not expect them to honor my pricing ❤️

✨ Currently Booked Clients ✨
I will be contacting clients that are currently on the books by Sunday (the 23rd) to make new appointment arrangements.
I know this will be incredibly disappointing especially to those of you that are due for your FIRST touchup that I thought we scheduled perfectly for my surgery recovery.

I will absolutely do everything in my power to get you in as soon as possible but I will not work on you until it is safe for all of us to do so and I hope you will understand this and extend some grace to me ❤️

Making this decision is absolutely breaking me mentally this week and I’ve cried many, MANY tears over it because when your body isn’t cooperating, it’s intensely frustrating!!!

Please enjoy the photos of my eye throughout the years, I added links to my reddit posts about this recovery below to avoid adding GRAPHIC photos to this post. I know they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea 😂

Before Surgery Backstory:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/NLwuXY911P

My vision before surgery:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/BPrAZI4FfY

Surgery Day (Graphic photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/DnroS0RvRl

Day 2 Post Op (Graphic Photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/zwQiXqAT0Q

Day 3 Post Op (Graphic Photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/GFRK51pijz

Day 4 Post Op (Graphic Photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/pZqomFAOxJ

Day 5 Post Op (Graphic Photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/8toP9G2CZd

Day 6 Post Op (Graphic Photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/YylPZNO3MT

Day 7 Post Op (Graphic Photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/eTf5QCCnAO

Week 2 Post Op (Less graphic but still weird photos):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Strabismus/s/swLKVfOv5o

I’ll be posting my 3 week update there probably tonight ❤️