Consent Forms: Why Honesty Actually is the Best Policy
November 15th, 2022
KAT KENNY
TATTOOS
When you book an appointment with Inkvictus Studios (which, if you’re looking to do, can be done right here 😉), your confirmation email contains a link to any consent forms and waivers that might need to be completed ahead of your appointment. We kindly ask that these forms are completed no later than 72 hours before your appointment time, but sooner is always better than later 🤓!
So what’s the deal with these consent forms anyway? Why do we care about your home address, emergency contact information, and any medications you may be taking? Are we just extremely nosy artists trying to build a full dossier of your personal information before we’ve even met? 🕵️♀️
The truth of the matter is that consent forms are needed to protect all of us: to protect your artist from any potential liability, sure, but mainly to protect you, the client, from any unwanted (read: unfortunate) complications that may arise due to an unknown contraindication for your scheduled service, and also to remind you of the things you should and shouldn’t be doing leading up to your appointment. Let’s dive in, shall we?
General Consent Forms
This one is pretty straightforward, but it should still be read! Each artist has a specific general consent form here at Inkvictus Studios, that specifically states that you are authorizing your chosen artist to perform the service that you’ve scheduled. It also sets out the physical situation you’ll need to be prepared for for your service (lying down in a reclined position, eyes closed for lash services, etc.), briefly sets out the aftercare dos/don’ts, and provides an abridged version of what you can expect as your new tattoo heals.
As we’ve gone over in previous blog posts, your skin is not a blank canvas, and we as artists will do our educated best to achieve the most optimal results, but we cannot be prepared for every circumstance and predictably guarantee exactly how your individual skin will react. This form acknowledges that what you’re entering into is essentially a collaboration, and that we will work with you to get you the best possible results.
Cosmetic Tattoo Pre-Procedure Advice
We detail and list our pre-procedure advice on our website (which you should be thoroughly reading before even booking a session, FYI!), but this form acts as a reminder and requires you to acknowledge that you’ve read the things you should (and shouldn’t) be doing as your appointment approaches. Things like laying off the retinols and Botox, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, staying out of the sun immediately before your session, and how to best prepare for your appointment are all set out in this form to make sure you’re keenly aware of the things you can be in charge of to make your artist’s job easier on the day of.
We ask for your forms to be completed a minimum of 72 hours before your appointment time in order to give your artist the time to go over them and reach out to you if there are any questions or if additional clarification is needed, but since the timelines for some of the things we ask you to abstain from ahead of your appointment can be longer than that 72-hour window, that’s where completing your forms ASAP is important. You don’t want to leave your forms to the last minute only to realize you should have stopped using your AHAs 2 weeks ago, or shouldn’t have gotten that laser peel the other day. When things like that come up that cause your appointment to have to be rescheduled at the last minute, it’s a bummer for everyone involved (and can sometimes have financial consequences, too).
Client Medical Health Form
This is the big one, folks! This is the first one your artist will check to make sure you’ve completed before you come in. This form includes your detailed personal information (address, birthday, contact information) as well as things like your emergency contact, their information and your relation to them, and any medications you may have taken in the last six months. It asks you to confirm that you do not have prior permanent makeup, OR if you do, that you’ve scheduled (and completed!) a complimentary consultation and your chosen artist has approved you to schedule a full session.
The second half of the form includes tick boxes for any medical conditions you may have experienced in the last 12 months (things like pregnancy, anemia, chemotherapy, cold sores, keloid scars, or thyroid issues), followed by a shorter list of boxes of elective procedures you may have had completed recently (which you should have just read not to do on the pre-procedure form 😉).
This is also the form where honesty is 10000000% most important. If you misrepresent yourself on this form (also commonly known as lying), you’re not only potentially putting your artist at risk from an insurance standpoint, but you may also be severely jeopardizing your own experience and healed results. Any number of factors can affect the way we tattoo and the way your skin accepts the pigment, and to omit any information is setting your artist up at a significant disadvantage for what they’re going to do on your face. Doesn’t seem like a wise decision, to be honest.
Lash Forms
The Lash Lift Liability Waiver and the Lash Service Liability Waiver go out to our lash clients and set out the things they need to be aware of ahead of their sessions. Just like with tattoo appointments, you as the client will be in a reclined position for the duration of the session, with your eyes closed. We ask you to acknowledge things like contact lenses needing to be removed, the time period after your appointment when you should avoid getting your lashes wet, and which products should be avoided on your lashes subsequent to your service. Of course, we discuss every step of these services with each client as they’re being completed, but these forms protect us as artists as you acknowledge you’ve been made aware of them.
Consultation Form
This form is sent out to everyone who books a complimentary consultation with us at Inkvictus Studios. In addition to your personal contact information, it asks whether you’d prefer a consultation to be virtual (telephonic, FaceTime, etc.) or in-person, and whether you have any prior permanent makeup. Filling this form out ASAP after booking your consultation is a huge help for your artist, so they’re as prepared as they can be ahead of meeting you for the first time. Consultations are required when prior PMU is involved, so if the answer to that question is Yes, we ask that you text a clear photograph of your existing tattoo to our main number.
(Just a note: many times, if prior work is a factor, a consultation needs to be in-person so we can see the work up close and under lighting we can control. Keep this in mind when scheduling your consultation for a date/time that’s convenient for you to physically come to the studio; if you are banking on a virtual FaceTime because you’ll be on vacation in Montana, it may need to be rescheduled once your artist sees your completed form and asks you to come in in-person.)
That should do it for most of our forms! There may be the odd outlier here and there for certain appointments, but by and large the content of those is the same and for the same purposes. And the message behind all of them is without a doubt the same: completing your forms early, being honest with your responses (!!!), and giving them a quick re-read right before your appointment (so you don’t forget to skip that morning coffee) helps set both you and your artist up for the best session possible.
A blog post wrap-up wouldn’t be complete without a link to our Contact Us page, so here it is! Reach out if you’ve got any questions or if you just want to send a thoughtful message of encouragement to your favorite PMU & lash studio 🥰🖤
So what’s the deal with these consent forms anyway? Why do we care about your home address, emergency contact information, and any medications you may be taking? Are we just extremely nosy artists trying to build a full dossier of your personal information before we’ve even met? 🕵️♀️
The truth of the matter is that consent forms are needed to protect all of us: to protect your artist from any potential liability, sure, but mainly to protect you, the client, from any unwanted (read: unfortunate) complications that may arise due to an unknown contraindication for your scheduled service, and also to remind you of the things you should and shouldn’t be doing leading up to your appointment. Let’s dive in, shall we?
General Consent Forms
This one is pretty straightforward, but it should still be read! Each artist has a specific general consent form here at Inkvictus Studios, that specifically states that you are authorizing your chosen artist to perform the service that you’ve scheduled. It also sets out the physical situation you’ll need to be prepared for for your service (lying down in a reclined position, eyes closed for lash services, etc.), briefly sets out the aftercare dos/don’ts, and provides an abridged version of what you can expect as your new tattoo heals.
As we’ve gone over in previous blog posts, your skin is not a blank canvas, and we as artists will do our educated best to achieve the most optimal results, but we cannot be prepared for every circumstance and predictably guarantee exactly how your individual skin will react. This form acknowledges that what you’re entering into is essentially a collaboration, and that we will work with you to get you the best possible results.
Cosmetic Tattoo Pre-Procedure Advice
We detail and list our pre-procedure advice on our website (which you should be thoroughly reading before even booking a session, FYI!), but this form acts as a reminder and requires you to acknowledge that you’ve read the things you should (and shouldn’t) be doing as your appointment approaches. Things like laying off the retinols and Botox, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, staying out of the sun immediately before your session, and how to best prepare for your appointment are all set out in this form to make sure you’re keenly aware of the things you can be in charge of to make your artist’s job easier on the day of.
We ask for your forms to be completed a minimum of 72 hours before your appointment time in order to give your artist the time to go over them and reach out to you if there are any questions or if additional clarification is needed, but since the timelines for some of the things we ask you to abstain from ahead of your appointment can be longer than that 72-hour window, that’s where completing your forms ASAP is important. You don’t want to leave your forms to the last minute only to realize you should have stopped using your AHAs 2 weeks ago, or shouldn’t have gotten that laser peel the other day. When things like that come up that cause your appointment to have to be rescheduled at the last minute, it’s a bummer for everyone involved (and can sometimes have financial consequences, too).
Client Medical Health Form
This is the big one, folks! This is the first one your artist will check to make sure you’ve completed before you come in. This form includes your detailed personal information (address, birthday, contact information) as well as things like your emergency contact, their information and your relation to them, and any medications you may have taken in the last six months. It asks you to confirm that you do not have prior permanent makeup, OR if you do, that you’ve scheduled (and completed!) a complimentary consultation and your chosen artist has approved you to schedule a full session.
The second half of the form includes tick boxes for any medical conditions you may have experienced in the last 12 months (things like pregnancy, anemia, chemotherapy, cold sores, keloid scars, or thyroid issues), followed by a shorter list of boxes of elective procedures you may have had completed recently (which you should have just read not to do on the pre-procedure form 😉).
This is also the form where honesty is 10000000% most important. If you misrepresent yourself on this form (also commonly known as lying), you’re not only potentially putting your artist at risk from an insurance standpoint, but you may also be severely jeopardizing your own experience and healed results. Any number of factors can affect the way we tattoo and the way your skin accepts the pigment, and to omit any information is setting your artist up at a significant disadvantage for what they’re going to do on your face. Doesn’t seem like a wise decision, to be honest.
Lash Forms
The Lash Lift Liability Waiver and the Lash Service Liability Waiver go out to our lash clients and set out the things they need to be aware of ahead of their sessions. Just like with tattoo appointments, you as the client will be in a reclined position for the duration of the session, with your eyes closed. We ask you to acknowledge things like contact lenses needing to be removed, the time period after your appointment when you should avoid getting your lashes wet, and which products should be avoided on your lashes subsequent to your service. Of course, we discuss every step of these services with each client as they’re being completed, but these forms protect us as artists as you acknowledge you’ve been made aware of them.
Consultation Form
This form is sent out to everyone who books a complimentary consultation with us at Inkvictus Studios. In addition to your personal contact information, it asks whether you’d prefer a consultation to be virtual (telephonic, FaceTime, etc.) or in-person, and whether you have any prior permanent makeup. Filling this form out ASAP after booking your consultation is a huge help for your artist, so they’re as prepared as they can be ahead of meeting you for the first time. Consultations are required when prior PMU is involved, so if the answer to that question is Yes, we ask that you text a clear photograph of your existing tattoo to our main number.
(Just a note: many times, if prior work is a factor, a consultation needs to be in-person so we can see the work up close and under lighting we can control. Keep this in mind when scheduling your consultation for a date/time that’s convenient for you to physically come to the studio; if you are banking on a virtual FaceTime because you’ll be on vacation in Montana, it may need to be rescheduled once your artist sees your completed form and asks you to come in in-person.)
That should do it for most of our forms! There may be the odd outlier here and there for certain appointments, but by and large the content of those is the same and for the same purposes. And the message behind all of them is without a doubt the same: completing your forms early, being honest with your responses (!!!), and giving them a quick re-read right before your appointment (so you don’t forget to skip that morning coffee) helps set both you and your artist up for the best session possible.
A blog post wrap-up wouldn’t be complete without a link to our Contact Us page, so here it is! Reach out if you’ve got any questions or if you just want to send a thoughtful message of encouragement to your favorite PMU & lash studio 🥰🖤
