It is a tattoo, and it is on someone’s face.
A face-visible result generates dissatisfaction claims that no other beauty treatment does. We cover permanent makeup and microblading for that, for infection and reaction, and for correction and removal costs.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What permanent makeup artist businesses actually need.
Professional liability
Infection, reaction, scarring, migration and dissatisfaction with the result.
Without it — The whole exposure, and general liability reaches none of it.
General liability
The studio, the client’s belongings, and injury unrelated to the procedure.
Without it — What every studio lease and booth agreement asks to see.
Products liability
Reactions to pigments and aftercare products, including anything you retail.
Without it — Pigment reactions are alleged against the artist and the product together.
Business personal property
Machines, needles, pigments and the equipment you own at a rented station.
Without it — A studio’s policy covers the studio’s property, not the kit you brought.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
The client is unhappy with the shape, color or symmetry
Covered by Professional liability
The defining claim here and the one people least expect to be insurable. The result is on the face, visible daily, and the demand is usually for removal and correction costs.
Common
Infection or an allergic reaction to pigment
Covered by Professional liability
Turns on your sterilisation records, single-use protocol and patch testing. Bloodborne pathogen training is what makes this defensible.
Common
Scarring or pigment migration needing laser removal
Covered by Professional liability
Correction is expensive, multi-session and often performed by somebody else, and the bill is what the claim is for.
Common
A client says the result was guaranteed
Covered by Nothing — warranty of efficacy is excluded
Policies exclude guarantees of the efficacy of treatment including those made via media. Before-and-after marketing that promises a result is the exposure.
What our permanent makeup artist clients ask us.
Can a client really claim because they do not like it?
Yes, and it is the most common claim in this work. Cosmetic tattooing is unusual because the outcome is permanent, visible on the face, and judged aesthetically rather than clinically, so "I do not like it" is not a complaint that goes away, it is a demand for the cost of laser removal and correction, often over several sessions and several thousand dollars.
What gets denied that has nothing to do with the procedure?
Three things, and they are the ones almost nobody reads for. First, work performed by a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant who is not actually named on the policy. The medical director being real is not the same as the medical director being a named insured, and the exclusion is written on the name. Second, any warranty or guarantee of how well a treatment works, expressly or by implication, including one made through advertising or social media.
Is microblading covered under a general esthetician policy?
Sometimes, and never assume it. Cosmetic tattooing breaks the skin, which puts it in a different exposure category from facials and waxing, and plenty of esthetician policies either exclude it or sublimit it. Where a policy does cover it, it may cover microblading and not machine work, or not cover lip and eyeliner. Because the coverage is written procedure by procedure here rather than by job title, the only reliable answer is on your own endorsement.
How do I find out what my own policy excludes?
Look for an endorsement with "excluded procedures" or "cosmetic procedures exclusion" in the title, and read the list rather than the policy summary, because the declarations page will not tell you, and the certificate certainly will not. Every carrier writes a different schedule and the same carrier writes different schedules for different license types, so a colleague’s answer is not yours.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.