She’s a trained artist with a love for design. But Lisa Doll is focusing on a new kind of art with the opening of her tattoo shop in Ellicott City, hoping to heal through a unique form of art and ink.
“Just like paint on a canvas, you can use tattooing to go over something someone has lost and give them hope again,” Doll says.
Her new venture, Rose Red Tattoo on Rogers Avenue, is her first attempt at branching out on her own, combining her work at a local tattoo shop and her experience crafting portraits of families to take her art form to a new level.
Doll’s business isn’t your average tattoo parlor. Along with traditional tattoo art, she offers permanent makeup, paramedical services and tattoo removal.
Among her paramedical offerings are areola restoration for women who have undergone breast surgery or a mastectomy, scar camouflage, hair stippling to cover a balding scalp or chin scars on men, and toenail and fingernail reconstruction.
For Mark Wilson, finding Doll and her services helped him feel more confident in his body.
“I had these tattoos on the back of my legs that I had done at a convention,” Wilson says. “I was very embarrassed with the quality of how the other artist did my tattoo. I came across Lisa from word of mouth and felt comfortable with her. She made sure that the finished product is something I am very happy with.”
When it comes to makeup, tattooing can offer an easier alternative to getting ready for the day, says Kimberly Haddaway, who went to Doll for permanent eyeliner tattooing after looking for someone to do her permanent makeup for more than 10 years.
“I’m getting older, and putting on and taking off makeup is work,” Haddaway says. “I had seen Lisa’s work on the Internet, and it sparked my interest. Her tattoos are beautiful. …When she said she was in school for permanent makeup, we started talking. The week she announced she would do the eyeliner, I made an appointment.”