Permanent eyeliner consent form: eye safety, design and aftercare
Eyeliner is the one PMU service where you are working millimeters from the eye itself. That changes what a consent form has to do. It still covers fading, touch-ups and design, but it also has to screen eye health, plan around contact lenses and lash services, and tell the client exactly when to stop calling you and get urgent eye care.
This exact form is built into SlickChart: send it to your client's phone to sign before the visit, and the aftercare below goes home with her.
Call it what it is: a cosmetic tattoo
My form does not soften the description. Pigment is placed along the lash line with a sterile, single-use needle for fuller-looking lashes or a defined liner, and it says plainly that it is a cosmetic tattoo. The appointment runs about 2 to 3 hours. Eyes are watery and puffy, with swelling peaking at 24 to 48 hours, and a touch-up at 6 to 8 weeks completes the process.
On longevity, it says usually 3 to 5 years, softening over time, and that removal is slow and may be incomplete. Worth having signed before you start.
Risks that belong to the eye area
The risk list is different from a brow or lip form:
- swelling, bruising and watery eyes for several days
- eye irritation, conjunctivitis or eye infection
- rarely, a scratch on the eye (corneal abrasion)
- uneven lines or patchy healing that needs a touch-up
- pigment spreading past the lash line (migration)
- pigment or numbing product getting into the eye
- some lash loss, usually temporary
- allergy, and rarely granuloma or scarring
Screening before the day
The checklist is titled "before your appointment" because several items need weeks of notice. It asks about glaucoma or eye surgery in the past 6 months, lash growth serum in the past 3 months, current lash extensions or a lift, a stye, eye infection or rash near the eyes, dry eye or contact lenses, and Accutane in the past 6 months, along with pregnancy, blood thinners, keloids, diabetes, autoimmune conditions and allergies to numbing, pigment, nickel or latex.
My prep guide puts the same items on a timeline: lash growth serums stop 3 months before, lash extensions or a lift come off a week before, contacts stay out on the day so she wears glasses, and she tells you about dry eye, glaucoma or any eye surgery. A checked box is the start of a conversation, not a diagnosis. Whether an eye condition rules her out is a question for her eye doctor.
Design: build up, not take away
The design section lets you agree on a style together in the mirror: lash enhancement, thin classic, defined, small wing, upper only, or upper and lower. Then one sentence that is the whole philosophy of liner:
Liner can be built up at the touch-up but is hard to take away.
She approves the design on its own line, with space for design notes.
Acknowledgements written for the chair
Some of these are about behavior during the procedure. She agrees to keep her eyes closed and still when asked, and to speak up right away about stinging or pain. Others plan the weeks after: no contacts for 7 days, no eye makeup for 14 days, and no lash extensions or lifts for 4 weeks.
She also confirms a complete eye and medication history, that healed liner is softer than day one, that results are not guaranteed, and that she is sober today. Signing confirms she is 18 or older.
Aftercare with an eye care line
My eyeliner guide expects puffy, watery eyes for a day or two. Day 0 is gentle blotting with clean gauze and a cold compress over closed eyes, 10 minutes at a time. Days 1 and 2 are peak swelling, often worse in the morning, so she sleeps with her head raised and keeps hot water off her face. Days 3 to 7 bring light flaking at the lash line: glasses, not contacts, and no mascara, pools or steam. Contacts can return from day 7 with freshly washed hands, eye makeup from day 14, and lash services after 4 weeks.
The urgent line is the part I would never leave out: eye pain, vision changes, ongoing discharge or light sensitivity means urgent eye care right away, and trouble breathing or swelling of the face or throat means calling 911.
Questions to decide for your own practice
- Will you book a client who wears contacts and cannot go without for a week?
- Will you work over a previous eyeliner tattoo, and what do you need to see first?
- How will you track healing between the first session and the touch-up? (See what to record in a client chart.)
- PMU licensing, health department and bloodborne pathogen rules vary by state and county, so check with your state and local health department and board. This post is not legal or medical advice.
Use this form with your clients
SlickChart has this exact permanent eyeliner consent and aftercare built in for subscribers. The form goes to the client's phone to sign before the visit, or she signs on your device in the room, and any contraindication she checks is flagged for you. The aftercare lands in the client's own app, styled with your logo, and it all works alongside the Square account you already have. If that would save you paperwork, try SlickChart.
Prefer paper? The printable eyeliner and lash enhancement set, with the consent form, protocol and aftercare, is in my Etsy shop, ready to print or edit in free Canva.