PMU Love story. My story. My way to success.
My story began in the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, where I was born and grew up. I started drawing at a very early age. I graduated from art school and art college, planned to apply to an art university. But life itself did not take my plans into consideration. The 1990s were not the best time for developing art skills. As many other Russian people of that period, I had to do my best to survive especially after the divorce with my husband. My daughter was little back then, I had to provide for the family. I tried to start different businesses, traveled, and lived abroad, in Kuwait. Even then I still remembered my passion for drawing.
In 2001, I decided to get a tribal tattoo from a tattoo artist in Novosibirsk. At that moment the tattoo
was something new for me, something fresh. I enjoyed watching the work of the artist and later I asked
him to teach me the tattoo technique, how to solder needles and more. Luckily he agreed and
demonstrated everything for me. After that, I made an order for myself: an induction tattoo machine
Micky Sharpz, special ink, and started working at one of the tattoo salons in Novosibirsk. It lasted for
several months. Besides tattoo I also worked as permanent make-up artist (eyebrows, eyelids and lips).
I had more and more clients but I craved something greater. In 2003, I attended the tattoo convention in
Bremen, Germany, and that trip changed my whole life. Back from Germany I went straight to
Moscow. That was my spontaneous decision: to stay in the capital and never go back to Novosibirsk.
First, I lived in one-room apartment in Korolev city, Moscow suburbs. I found my first job in an ad, it
was a salon in the city center of Moscow, at Mayakoskaya metro station. Every day it took me two
hours one way to get to the salon and back home. When this salon closed, I had to look for a new job. I
ended up in a beauty salon, whose director offered me to rent a small room in the basement, which I
used later for doing tattoos, permanent make-up and piercing. I had to work a lot. Despite all the
hardships, I was happy. My first salary of $200 in 2004 was a real celebration – I could afford to rent a
separate apartment. Eventually I had my own client list, and among those businesswomen, young
mothers, musicians of famous Moscow punk bands Tarakany and Purgen.
As the time went by, the demand for permanent make-up increased. In 2007 I took a loan from a bank
and used the money to get professional permanent make-up equipment of a German brand. I quit doing
tattoos and switched to permanent make-up. I began to participate in different professional
competitions like “The Contour of the Age” or “Your Profile”.
By 2014 my salon expanded, the total area of it is 270 square meters (2906 square feet). Besides my
permanent make-up treatment room there is a little shop, a solarium, a hairdresser’s, a few tattoo
studios and permanent make-up rooms in the salon. Looking back, I realize how many obstacles and
hardships I have overcome, how much energy I have spent promoting my business on my own. I am
happy and I am thankful for all that.
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Alina Soloveva is a world renowned permanent makeup artist and instructor, the owner of the tattoo-studio “Sphinx” in Moscow, the owner of SOLO PMU Academy, publisher of PMU International magazine
Алина Соловьева – мастер перманентного макияжа международного класса, владелец студии “Сфинкс”, руководитель международной академии перманентного макияжа SOLO, издатель международного профессионального журнала по перманентному макияжу PMU International magazine
website – www.alinasoloveva.com
fb – https://www.facebook.com/alina.soloveva
vk – https://vk.com/id339259806
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