Permanent makeup and MRI.
What really happens in the scanner.

The rumor in the waiting room

Most of us meet this question on a clipboard. “Do you have any tattoos or permanent makeup?” sits on the MRI screening form between pacemakers and metal fragments, and that placement alone makes people nervous. Did the artist put metal in my brows? Will the machine pull on my lip blush? Should I have said no to eyeliner?

Here is the calmer picture. An MRI uses a strong magnet and radio waves. Some tattoo and permanent makeup pigments, especially older dark formulas, can contain iron oxides or other metal-based compounds, and in rare cases the skin over them can feel warm, tingly or burning during a scan. That is why the form asks. It is a screening question, not a red flag, and the people asking it know what to do with your answer.

The real mistake is not having permanent makeup. It is hiding it, guessing about it, or postponing a scan out of fear.

What the FDA actually says

The FDA's Tattoos & Permanent Makeup Fact Sheet (content current as of October 15, 2024) lists “MRI complications” among the risks of tattooing and spells out three points worth knowing:

• Reactions are rare. There have been reports of people with tattoos or permanent makeup who had swelling or burning in the affected areas during MRI. The FDA says this seems to occur only rarely and apparently without lasting effects.
• Eyeliner can affect the picture. There are also reports of tattoo pigment interfering with image quality, which the FDA says seems to occur mainly when a person with permanent eyeliner has an MRI of the eyes.
• Skipping the scan is the bigger risk. The agency notes that the risks of avoiding an MRI your doctor has recommended are likely to be much greater, and advises telling the radiologist or radiologic technologist about tattoos or permanent makeup.

The FDA's consumer page “Think Before You Ink” (current as of December 17, 2024) says the same thing in plainer words: some people may have swelling or burning in a tattoo during MRI, it happens rarely and does not last long, and you should let your health care professional know you have a tattoo before this type of imaging.

What radiologists tell patients

RadiologyInfo.org, the patient site run by the Radiological Society of North America and the American College of Radiology (last reviewed December 22, 2025), lists “some tattoos or tattooed eyeliner” among objects that may interfere with image quality if they are close to the area being examined. It adds that there is a chance of skin irritation or burning, and that the MRI system may smear new tattoos.

The same page lists ordinary makeup that may contain metal, including eye shadow and eyeliner, and asks patients to remove makeup, nail polish or other cosmetics that may contain metallic particles if they are applied to the area being imaged. Its overall instruction is simple: inform the MRI technologist about any implant or other internal or external object. Permanent makeup counts.

The research, in plain numbers

Fear runs on anecdotes. Here are the numbers.

• The biggest prospective study. In a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine (January 31, 2019), Martina Callaghan and colleagues at University College London's Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, with Nikolaus Weiskopf of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, followed 330 research volunteers with 932 tattoos through 585 brain-research MRI sessions on 3 Tesla scanners between 2011 and 2017. One participant felt warmth and tightness at a wrist tattoo; the scan was stopped and the reaction, classified as mild and tattoo-related, resolved within 24 hours. The authors estimated the chance of a reaction at about 0.17% per session (0.30% under a more cautious assumption) and concluded the risk was low “under these specific study conditions.”
• The fine print that matters for PMU. That study only included people whose tattoos covered 5% of the body or less, were no longer than 20 cm, and were not on the head, neck or genitals. Permanent brows, eyeliner and lip blush were outside its scope, so it reassures about body tattoos more than it speaks to facial ones.
• The permanent makeup survey. An earlier survey by Tope and Shellock (Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2002), as summarized in a 2011 review in Sports Health, asked 1,032 people about permanent cosmetics. Of 135 who had permanent cosmetics and had undergone MRI, 2 (1.5%) reported a problem, tingling or burning, and both had blue-black tattoos around the eyes.
• A real case, start to finish. That 2011 Sports Health paper (Ross and Matava) described a 24-year-old professional football player with black tattoos over both knees who felt burning about five minutes into a pelvic MRI. Staff placed a wet towel over and between his knees, the scan was completed, and mild swelling and redness resolved within 12 hours. He had had four earlier MRIs without symptoms.
• Fresh ink. A 2024 case report in the American Journal of Case Reports (Alsing and colleagues, Copenhagen) followed one young man whose new, three-week-old black tattoo on the hand caused burning pain, redness and swelling during MRI. The reactions resolved within days to about two weeks and became milder over repeat scans months later; lab analysis found no magnetic metals in the ink. The authors suggested reactions may lessen as a tattoo ages and concluded that tattoos do not contraindicate future scanning.

Put together: reactions are possible, uncommon, usually brief, and manageable when the team knows in advance. The evidence is thinner for facial permanent makeup than for body tattoos, which is one more reason to say something before the scan rather than after.

The two moments that deserve extra care

1. Permanent eyeliner and eye or brain imaging

Eyeliner sits right next to the eye, and both the FDA and RadiologyInfo single it out for image-quality concerns. If your scan involves the eyes, orbits, face or brain, mention eyeliner specifically, not just “tattoos,” and say whether it is on the upper lid, lower lid or both. The radiology team can then decide how to protocol the scan. In the Tope and Shellock survey, the two people who reported tingling or burning both had tattoos around the eyes.

2. New permanent makeup and a planned scan

Fresh pigment is still settling in healing skin. RadiologyInfo notes that MRI may smear new tattoos, the 2024 case report involved a three-week-old tattoo, and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston, under its research-scanning policy effective October 2025, will not scan any tattoo, including cosmetic tattoos, that is less than two weeks old. That is one research center's rule, not a universal medical standard, but it points to a sensible habit: if you already know an MRI is coming, schedule new brows, eyeliner or lip blush for after it. If a scan becomes medically necessary while your permanent makeup is healing, get the scan and tell the team how fresh it is.

What to say before your scan

You do not need your artist's pigment brand. You need location, age and anything unusual. Copy this into your notes app:

1. Where: “I have permanent makeup on my eyebrows (and upper eyeliner / lip blush), plus a tattoo on my ___.”
2. How old: “The brows were done in ___ and touched up in ___.” Say clearly if anything is less than a few weeks old.
3. History: “I had (or have never had) warmth or tingling in a tattoo during a previous MRI.”
4. Today's makeup: Arrive with a bare face if you can, especially for head or eye imaging, since some eye shadows and liners may contain metallic particles.
5. Lashes: Tell the team if you wear lash extensions, and never wear magnetic lashes into the scanner room unless the MRI team has cleared them. Our guide to lash extensions before surgery, eye procedures and MRI covers that in detail.
6. The signal: Ask, “How do I let you know if something feels warm?” before the scan starts.

If your brows were done years ago, maybe on a trip abroad or at a shop that has since closed, and you have no idea what pigment was used, that is completely normal. Say so. The imaging team plans around location and age, not brand names.

If it feels warm during the scan

• Speak up immediately. Use the call button or your voice. Technologists would much rather pause a sequence than have you stay quiet.
• Let them cool it. MRI safety guidance quoted in the 2011 Sports Health review suggests a cold compress, such as a wet washcloth, on the tattoo site as a precaution, which is exactly what helped the football player finish his scan.
• Afterward, watch the area. Mild redness or swelling that fades over hours to days matches what published reports describe. If you see blistering, pain that is getting worse, or swelling that has not settled, contact your doctor.
• Do not pick, scrub or “treat” it with home remedies, and pause any planned touch-up until the skin is fully calm.
• Note it for next time, so you can mention it on your next screening form.

Five myths, retired

Planning permanent makeup when MRIs are part of your life

Some people know imaging is a regular part of their year: follow-up scans, a sports injury, a chronic condition. That does not rule out permanent makeup, but it does make the consultation more important. Bring it up the way you would bring up pregnancy, cold-sore history or a recent peel:

• Mention any MRIs you have scheduled or expect, so the appointment can be timed around them.
• Ask the artist which pigments they use and whether the manufacturer provides ingredient information you can share with your imaging team if asked.
• Consider whether eyeliner is the right choice if you have frequent eye or brain imaging; soft powder brows or lip blush sit farther from the eye. That is a conversation, not a rule.
• Ask for your appointment date in writing, so you can answer “how old is it?” with confidence later.
• Keep your aftercare notes. Our permanent makeup aftercare guide includes the MRI reminder, and who should avoid permanent makeup covers other health conversations worth having first.

Pigment quality is its own topic; if you want to know what is actually in the bottle and how recalls work, read our guide to tattoo and PMU ink safety.

A note for Little Saigon and Orange County regulars

If you are on your second or third set of brows, maybe a first set done years ago, a correction somewhere else, and a refresh at a studio closer to home on West 5th Street or in Westminster, Garden Grove or Fountain Valley, you may be carrying several eras of pigment in the same small area. That layered history is exactly what an imaging team wants to hear about, and the easiest thing to forget on a busy scan morning. If you are not sure when your oldest work was done, a rough year is far better than nothing.

What the good version looks like

Picture it: you wake up on scan day with brows already on, skip the eyeliner pencil because the instructions said bare face, and write three lines on the form: powder brows, 2024; upper eyeliner, 2019; no reactions before. The technologist nods, mentions a cool cloth if you feel anything, and you lie back thinking about your grocery list instead of your eyebrows. The scan ends. Your brows look exactly like they did that morning. That is the normal story, and it starts with one honest sentence on the form.

How this works at Enclave

At Enclave Beauty in Santa Ana, permanent makeup starts with a consultation, and we ask about prescriptions, recent procedures and planned imaging such as MRI before anything is mapped. Our aftercare asks you to tell MRI staff that you have permanent makeup. If a scan is coming up, tell us and we can plan your appointment around it.

Current starting prices on our services menu: Ombré Powder Brows from $495, Upper or Lower Eyeliner from $385 and Lip Blush from $550. If you are thinking about fading older work instead, Eyebrow Tattoo Removal starts from $250 per session, and eyeliner pigment removal is consultation-based. Prices can change; the permanent makeup services page always shows today's menu, and the tattoo and pigment removal page covers removal.

Frequently asked questions