Core Units: Foundations of Cosmetic Tattooing
What the core units cover
Core units establish the knowledge every cosmetic tattooist needs before specialising: skin anatomy and wound healing, colour theory, client consultation and informed consent, documentation, and scope of practice. Expect questions that test whether you can distinguish the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis and explain why pigment must be deposited in the upper dermis. Understand the phases of wound healing (haemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, remodelling) and how aftercare advice maps onto each phase.
Colour theory and pigment behaviour
Know the colour wheel, complementary colours, and how undertones affect healed results. A frequent trap is confusing the colour you see immediately (which sits over blood and trauma) with the healed colour weeks later. Another trap is assuming pigment is permanent and static; it fades, shifts and can migrate.
Consultation, consent and records
Candidates must know what informed consent includes: risks, alternatives, aftercare, expected healing, and the client's right to decline. Documentation should be contemporaneous, legible and stored securely. A common question asks who owns the record or how long to retain it; answer according to your jurisdiction's privacy and health records law rather than guessing a number.
Scope of practice
Know when to refer: pregnancy, immunosuppression, active infection, keloid tendency, isotretinoin use, and uncontrolled skin conditions. The trap is treating a contraindication as an absolute when it may be relative, or vice versa.
Worked rule of thumb
If a question describes a client with a condition you would not confidently manage, the safest answer is usually to defer treatment and seek medical clearance, not to proceed with extra precautions.