Exclusive | Blush tattoos are the newest permanent makeup for low-maintenance beauty lovers

These aren’t the face tattoos your mother warned you about – but maybe she should have.

Beauty-seekers are suddenly shelling out hundreds of dollars for something called “semi-permanent blush,” a new type of cosmetic tattoo that’s all the rage in NYC — despite critics likening the finished product to “rosacea” or a “permanent burn from the sun”.

It’s the latest in a line of permanent makeup tattoos, following the boom in other cosmetic tattoos like eyebrow micro-blading, eyeliner tattoos and lip blush, which are designed for low-maintenance beauty lovers.

For Grace Clarke, who likes to keep her daily routine simple, it felt like the perfect solution – never mind the hefty price tag.

“It’s total luxury, but the way I want to live my life on a day-to-day basis is to spend as little time on vanity as possible,” the NYC-based brand consultant — who also cuts her own hair and does her manicures. – told The Post.

“It’s not that I don’t believe in vanity, it’s that I just don’t want to have to think about it, so I do a lot of semi-permanent, permanent and invasive procedures to do that,” explained Clarke, who despise wearing makeup.

Instead, she gets her Russian manicures, cuts her hair short, and has had plastic surgery, all in an effort to keep her everyday life low-key.

For him, the controversial procedure of reddening the cheeks was an “easy and simple solution”.

“I chose blush because it feels like an indicator, at least aesthetically, of health and glow, and aesthetically I find it very sweet,” she continued. “There’s something strangely sentimental to me about a pink, fresh kind of vibe.”

She visited Velvet Cosmetic Tattoos earlier this year after coming across the studio on TikTok. The owner, Savannah Messenger, has become, albeit “fortunately and by chance,” a blush pioneer, being one of the first artists in town to offer it.

“I’ve had some customers ask me because they’ve seen it in other places,” Messenger, 34, told The Post. “So it’s actually quite popular, from what I understand, in countries like Korea.”

She had never heard of the tattooing method before her client asked Tina Nguyen. Before she dared try it on another person—let alone their face—Messenger practiced on her feet to perfect her technique.

She now offers the service — priced from $300 to $400, depending on the length of the appointment — at her Williamsburg studio, but asks that it be booked only through a consultation, where she explains what blushing is.

It’s imperative, Messenger added, that clients understand the risks associated with cosmetic tattoos — lasers and retinol, for example, are off limits — which tend to last only five years or less.

She also advised going to a well-known and trained artist. Any type of tattoo – cosmetic or otherwise – can pose a risk of infection or less-than-desirable results if done incorrectly.

“If you mess it up, that’s it. It’s right there in somebody’s face,” Messenger said. “It won’t be easy to fix, if it’s fixable.”

Cheek flushing usually involves gently “bumping” the pigment in the upper layers of the skin, she explained, likening it to a “microneedling treatment.” While it may look “crazy” for days to come, she noted, it does cure the desired result: a natural, feathery rosy.

“It’s not supposed to look like you’re wearing makeup, it’s supposed to look like you’re just fresh,” Clarke explained.

Nguyen, a 23-year-old registered dietitian who is always looking for “beautiful solutions that last,” was Messenger’s first blush client, and, two years later, her semi-permanent blush still provides a visible redn.

While she opted for a more vibrant shade of blush for her face, Clarke opted for a shade that made her look like she’d “just come from a run,” though online haters likened it to “rosacea” or a rash.

“Now you have permanent sunburn,” one person snapped in her TikTok comments.

“It looks like rosacea,” said another, saying they “cover up” their skin condition every day. “Are you going to get eye bags or dark circles tattooed next?!”

Dermatology Dr. Muneeb Shah, who practices in New York, told The Post that cosmetic tattoos like cheek tints tend to “last longer than most people think.” Then, it can “migrate”—once-sharp lines can blur, just like hair strokes from microblading eyebrows that can blend together over time.

“So that would also be true for blushing, where it won’t necessarily look like when you first get it done as the tattoo evolves,” he explained, adding that the removal process becomes more “tricky” for due to the healing process.

“Anything you put on your face is something people are going to see every day,” he noted.

But not everyone was so harshly critical – some, in fact, were inspired to research the service themselves.

“I can consider that. I’ve always loved brows and liner, I didn’t know blush was a thing,” one TikTok user wrote.

“As someone who looks like a dying Victorian child without a blush: that looks great!” someone else entered.

Rouge is a far cry from today’s beauty trends, where pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s bright, rosy cheeks are all the rage.

“I think the popular makeup trends of the moment are always influencing everything we do in permanent makeup,” Messenger said.

“But I think you have to like to create some limitations with that as well, because for me, I always think about longevity, like, what are you going to look like in five years? We don’t want to look crazy.”