13 minute read
Spotlight on Katherine McCann ABIA 2023 Cosmetic Tattooist of the Year
By Louise May
Renowned for her ultrarealistic and natural tattooing style, Katherine McCann’s edgy flair and result-oriented approach to education have made her a specialist in the ever-changing world of permanent makeup.
As an industry advisor, award-winning cosmetic tattooist, and educator, Katherine brings a wealth of diverse skills and experiences to the table. From working on autopsy tables in the coroner’s mortuary to creating elite makeup looks at Mercedes fashion events, she has honed her ability to educate, predict, and restore faces globally.
With post-graduation qualifications in HR, behavioural science, and strategic business development, Katherine’s commitment to education is evident through her longstanding associations with APAN.
The former Editor of the APJ national aesthetics journal and features journalist for APN, she passionately explores various industry facets while advocating for ongoing education and skill refinement, mentorships and promoting awareness of regulations and standards.
Having navigated corporate and clinic environments for over 20 years, Katherine’s unique ability to ‘blend worlds’ makes her expertise highly sought after and recognised as a ‘go-to guru’ in the cosmetic tattooing community.
Beauty Biz Editor, Louise May, delves into Katherine’s journey, revealing the expertise and adventures that have shaped her as a standout figure in the beauty industry.
Can you tell us a little bit about how you first started in the industry?
I started out as one of those outlandish watch and re-create style makeup and nail artists who used to love trying out crazy new ways to do things, testing products and colours together and built my first clinic in my early 20’s. I had no hard plan and literally no idea - I was just doing it because it was fun – luckily it worked out and with each milestone, I just kept creating new ideas and bringing them to life.
My parents brought me up with the mindset that life didn’t start till I got my law degree and finished university – so I spent my early years juggling uni, riding racehorses, working 3 jobs and when I finished all of that I ended up back in beauty.
In my mind, if I was going to turn up to a job every day, it needed to be one I loved, so I went and completed my diploma of beauty at Stones Corner, got the piece of paper and became ‘official’... Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t know what I know now – I would have been far too cautious!
How has your diverse background in beauty, mortuary science, and teaching contributed to your unique approach as a cosmetic tattooist?
I honestly think the fact I rarely say no to collaborations, ideas, and adventures (as long as they align) is one of the main reasons I end up doing so many things across a lot of different areas.
I work well on concurrent projects and love getting involved in committees and bigger picture organisations and associations because not only can the number of people you can help quadruple, but you get to be part of growth and change, as well exposure to opportunities, events and people who wouldn’t otherwise cross your path as an individual.
I strive to align with people who know a lot more than me where I need to work hard to keep up and that pushes me to be more, even when it’s scary, but you make sure you’re the expert the next time you have to get up and step into whatever role you need to play – that’s growth!
So, like many people who have been around a long time, you stay humble, you watch and learn and when you recognise areas you can grow into or can add value or are offered roles that really light the fire in your belly, you take them.
As they say, experience is collected along the way and as long as you’re doing, you’re learning so when you combine all of these things, it means you can confidently contribute. It also enables you to undertake calculated business actions and decisions quickly, you see things others may not and can utilise skill sets from different jobs, industries and combined experiences and possess an ability to meld them into something special and make them into your own - this only comes from trial, error and ultimately exposure, time, and tenure.
Could you elaborate on the challenges you’ve faced in elevating and standardising education by bridging the gap between short courses and advanced training, and how your Emerging Artists Pathway Program addresses these hurdles?
Cosmetic tattooing is quite a complex skillset to learn - not only does a person need to master the practical side of tattooing someone’s face, but it takes a long time and to master predictability around outcomes on an almost infinite combination of colours, skin types, personalities and expectations – breaking that into small, systemised and methodical steps people can understand and metabolise in a training course even harder for so many years I’ve turned down teaching or training beginners and focused mainly on post-grad and technical skill refinement style training.
Fortunately, here in Australia, we have a government who is moving in the right direction with respect to creating standardised and accredited training programs and providers and educators who for the most part are delivering these courses at a very high standard.
While RTO’s are the only service providers who can offer accredited training in the country, it is the ‘recommended’ study pathway although not mandatory at this stage.
This does however leave the door wide open to loopholes and pop-up operators with flashy marketing campaigns who charge huge money on the promise of graduates walking into instantaneous and lucrative careers after a couple of days training – the fact is however it couldn’t be further from reality and consequently a lot of people pay a lot of money and come away with limited hands on practical experience and even less confidence to work alone or even pick up a tattoo machine again.
So, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, I’ve focused on confidence building, mentoring and providing post grad courses for technical skill refinement and most recently have finalised the build of my dedicated training headquarters in Brisbane - and the new home for Inka Academy.
Our major focus is around artist support and the creation of our integrated learning pathways for students both brand new, emerging and returning. We have worked incredibly hard at creating flexible educational pathways with key industry stakeholders and provide opportunities for our students to articulate into accredited training.
I am particularly proud of our Australian first hybrid program that is designed to bridge the gaps by solidifying the essential foundational cosmetic tattoo skills necessary to operate and maintain sustainable businesses but ensuring concepts are underpinned through context-based learning in a practical learn and earn style environment.
Launching early 2024, the Emerging Artists Pathway Program provides students the flexibility to undertake a 3 month program (there are mixed delivery modes: intensive in clinic, block placement or online) depending on their learning requirements and is especially helpful for those who have undertaken prior learnings or short courses but still don’t feel like they have enough knowledge or are not yet confident enough to work independently on their own and need that bit of extra support to build confidence and properly structure their businesses before taking that next step as an independent artist.
Inka Academy has a signature series of foundation to master training courses available as well as short online courses and our awesome Elevation Micro Station – packed full of useful resources!
Another exciting program and major highlight we are holding in September 2024 the Inka Island Retreats which incorporate a series of budget friendly interactive and immersive cosmetic tattoo bootcamps for artists both new, early career or returning artists who want to take their education, business, and baselines to the next level.
The first retreat is based on the beachfront in beautiful Bali and includes an inclusive 7-day program which is designed exclusively to recharge, reinvigorate, and recalibrate artists as well as provide them with an unforgettable intercultural opportunity to meet, learn, share, and build their network and knowledge with artists from all over the world.
These are just a few of the outside the box learning experiences and alternative educational opportunities we are holding in 2024. 2025 will see us grace the shores of Fiji, Vanuatu, and the USA - at Inka, we love to do things differently and make it memorable – it’s not just about selling courses, but we are about building careers!
How does micro pigmentation play a role in trauma recovery, and what impact have you observed in your clients’ lives?
Everybody has a story, some are funny, some are incredibly heartbreaking and the rationale behind why a person may seek medical or restorative tattooing varies considerably.
As a whole, micropigmentation I strongly believe plays a dramatic role in a person’s trauma recovery journey - the way a person feels when they look at themselves goes far beyond what they see, it goes deep inside and affects their confidence and sense of self-worth, it impacts the way they interact in society, how they function at work or as a parent or partner, the list goes on.
So whether it may be covering up or concealing an accident or injury scar so that it reduces the appearance or can no longer be seen or the person may simply wish to invisibly restore one of their facial features which could have been impacted by illness or impact - every individual looks at themselves in a certain way and some people feel that their scars or injuries represent that trauma, others simply want to fit in and look and feel the same as everyone else.
The magic of micropigmentation in this aspect is being able to customise a treatment and completely change a person’s outlook on how they look and feel about themselves not only from the outside but from the inside as well.
Just recently I received a beautiful text from a client who had significant self-harm scars on both arms, and it said … Dear Kat, thank you for the gift of being able to wear a short sleeve shirt for the first time in over 20 years… I’m actually excited for summer! Happy tears are a real thing.
As someone deeply involved in both training and industry changes, how do you perceive the evolving landscape of cosmetic tattooing?
I believe change won’t slow down anytime soon and with globalisation and online connectivity access to information, education platforms, programs and resources easier and more interactive and enhanced than ever before – we see this every day via social media and its embedded within our daily feeds and there’s no point trying to resist it, but instead either be a part of it, be proactive, try and understand it so you can get ahead of the game or pivot and innovate because if you don’t this will eventually affect your competitive advantage in the future.
Stay informed, it’s your industry, not too much happens overnight BUT ignorance is no excuse.
How do you balance your roles as an educator, industry advisor, and practitioner while ensuring your own continuous professional development?
I honestly try and limit my social media exposure, I do the bare minimum – I try to keep it light, fun, educational or inspirational through storytelling the amazing outcomes my clients are experiencing because of what they trusted me to undertake.
I rarely look at what others are doing because it gives me anxiety around all the things I “could or should” be doing better and irrespective of how many cool things I can tick off my goal lists, I always end up coming away feeling like I should be doing better and or deflated, so now, I just don’t.
Regarding my own professional development, my goal for everything I undertake, or attend is that I want to learn or take away at least one thing, then I’ve achieved something. I also read - a lot and end up down many rabbit holes, but I need to know what, why and how about everything.
Regarding tattooing, a lot of what I do is self-taught, I am always experimenting and trying new things, pigments, removal systems, techniques, needles you name it, I’ve likely had a crack and while many remain in the test phase until I’ve either achieved consistency with something or I don’t.
Either way, I didn’t try, I could never confidently push boundaries or take on the more challenging corrections or complex work because I need healed results and outcomes to guide future work.
I’ve worked for many years behind the scenes helping others grow and elevate and always felt more comfortable out of the spotlight than building myself commercially, However I am a big believer in staying current and benchmarking yourself, so I hold myself accountable by entering big awards or speaking at specialist industry conferences or expos.
I don’t want to do all this cool stuff early on and then just live in the past, I want to be a person who when I stand up and deliver a speech or a lesson I can answer questions with examples and help shape a person’s perspective or trajectory through firsthand experience because I’ve been there and done – and if those authentic key moments can become part of someone’s big future, for me that’s an extremely valuable contribution.
How does your involvement in various conferences and courses globally influence your approach to innovation and skill refinement, and what trends do you foresee shaping the cosmetic tattooing industry in the near future?
Future industry trends I believe will be shaped around customisation, personalisation, and the incorporation of artificial intelligence - topics which cover almost everything industry related in some way shape or form and are a powerful reminder to stay current and get creative on how you can utilise these in ways that will help to grow, optimise, and automate elements within your business.
It’s important to stay authentic, no one can do what you can do and remember there’s no such thing as competition if you’re not doing the same thing as everyone else…
Think big, be different and remember - impossible is only an opinion.
@katmccann_inka
