Three checks before you ever hear a name

Check one: the license, verified at the source

Michigan law requires anyone performing microblading or permanent makeup to work from a state-licensed body art facility, under Part 131 of the Public Health Code (MCL 333.13101 and following). Licensed facilities get inspected: sterilization, single-use needles, sharps disposal, recordkeeping. Home operators and "studio suites" without the license get none of that oversight.

We verify the facility license exists and is current before an artist enters the network. Not a screenshot from the artist, the actual license.

The five-second version you can use anywhere

If you book anywhere else, ask to see the facility certificate. A licensed studio will show you before you finish the sentence. Hesitation is the answer.

Check two: healed photos, six weeks or later

Fresh work always looks good. The pigment is dark, the strokes are crisp, the lighting is perfect, and none of it tells you anything. What healed work looks like at six weeks, and what it looks like at a year, is the entire skill.

So we require healed portfolios: photos of the same brows, lips, or liner after the skin has fully regenerated. An artist with hundreds of appointments and no healed photos is telling you something. We listen to it, and we don't refer them.

Check three: a year of reviews, read for aging

Reviews written the day of the appointment measure excitement. Reviews written months later measure the work. We read back at least a year, looking for how results held up, how corrections were handled, and whether the artist honored touch-up commitments after they'd already been paid.

What disqualifies an artist

• No verifiable facility license, or a "certification" from a weekend course as the only credential
• A portfolio of fresh work only
• Review patterns that show fading complaints handled with silence or blame
• Pressure tactics: same-day-only pricing, deposits before a consultation, upselling every client the priciest service

What we refuse to do

• No pay-to-play. Studios can't buy placement. If money decided the match, the match would be worthless.
• No referrals for everyone. Pregnant or nursing? On Accutane? Scar less than a year old? The honest answer is wait, and we'll say it even though waiting pays us nothing.
• No pretending every service fits every face. Oily skin blurs microblading. Blush over dark lip tone heals ashy without correction first. The guides on this site say so in writing.

How we make money, since you should ask

Clients never pay us. Studios in the network pay a referral fee when a match becomes a booking, the same way any professional referral network works. You pay the studio directly at their standard price, the same price as walking in. Our incentive is long-term: matches that heal well are the only reason anyone keeps using us. More on who runs this guide and why it exists is on the about page.