Lasting Effects TM Permanent Cosmetic Institute Assists the Virginia Cosmetology Board in Creating State Licensing for Virginia Technicians

Lasting Effects TM Permanent Cosmetic Clinic and Institute in Timonium, Maryland drew on owner Roxanne Zarafonetis's allied health background and her status as one of the first working professional permanent cosmetic technicians on the East Coast ( 1991) to assist the Virginia Cosmetology Board to establish Virginia as one of the only states in the USA to have a state Board License for Permanent Cosmetics. This included utilizing the Maryland state approved Lasting Effects Program as a basis for the Virginia state approved 90 clock hour school program.

Timonium, Maryland (PRWEB) February 15, 2007 -- Although Permanent Cosmetics are a service becoming more known to much of the consumer public, it is still largely an unregulated field. But all this is changing! New professions are known by the federal title "emerging professions". They have special concerns and needs, due to the lack of established standards and licensing. Consumer protection is essential to protect a new field's integrity and reputation, and to ensure that both clients and students entering the field are not exploited.

Roxanne Zarafonetis, CNMT, LE, BC-PCT, PA of Lasting Effects TM Permanent Cosmetic Clinic and Institute in Timonium, Maryland founded PC-MEDS - the Permanent Cosmetic Medical, Educational & Development Society's in 1999 as the repository of all work done that establishs standards for the field. Roxanne drew on her allied health background and her status as one of the first working professional permanent cosmetic technicians on the East Coast ( 1991) to establish basic standards for the field based on the health science standards of safety and efficacy, with consumer protection in the forefront. Roxanne began her project by addressing the crticial needs of the emerging profession- "Permanent Cosmetic Technician."

Permanent Cosmetics as a field, closely mirrors the path that formerly unlicensed massage therapy has followed over the years. By studying what the massage therapist leaders did, Roxanne identified five tools needed to make Permanent Cosmetics a respected professional field. When Roxanne began, no State Board Licensing existed in the USA, no higher education school existed in the USA, no formal state approved curriculum existed in the USA and no convention existed on the mid Atlantic /east coast.

Seven years in the making, as of October 1, 2006- Roxannes' five tools are officially created and accomplished!! Now reposited in PC-MEDS, the "PC-MEDS Permanent Cosmetic Professional Tools" are: 1. Standards, 2. a School (a state approved, higher education),3. a Convention (CEU), 4. a National Board Exam and 4. State Licensing (of Permanent Cosmetic Techs).

These are details of the five tools Roxanne has accomplished for the profession of Permanent Cosmetics.

Standards: Roxanne researched and wrote * "Suggested Guidelines for State accredited Schools of Permanent Cosmetics" & this is adopted by PC-MEDS. This includes defining " a Paramedical Permanent Cosmetic Practitioner as a skilled allied health professional who is committed to applying the art and the skill of facial tattooing, skin color restoration and cosmetic alteration of existing skin color to create new structural appearance , through the safe and effective use of medical, cosmetic and facial tattooing techniques..." C 1999-2007 PC-MEDS.

State Approved School: Roxanne founded the first and only dedicated, East Coast Permanent Cosmetic School- approved by a state higher education commission.

Convention:    Roxanne began establishing continuing education opportunities by holding the first ever Permatasia 2001- East Coast Permanent Cosmetic Convention and providing a home study course on Sterilization and Disease Control for Permanent Cosmetics.

National PC-MEDS Board Exam: Roxanne gathered together graduate technicians and formed the PC-MEDS Exam Board. Together they authored The PC-MEDS Board Certification Exam for technicians.
.
State Licensing (Virginia): Roxanne has been working with the Virginia Cosmetology Board since November 2005. We are pleased to announce that Virginia is the first Eastern state to recognize Permanent Cosmetics as a licensed field ! Virginia has State Board Licensing for Permanent Cosmetics which Roxanne submitted, based on PC-MEDS guidelines and the Lasting Effects TM Permanent Cosmetic Institute's 90 hour Curriculum.

Roxanne Zarafonetis is a Johns Hopkins Hospital trained Nuclear Medicine Technologist( 1979) with 16 years of experience as a Master Level Permanent Cosmetic Technician. She introduced Permanent Cosmetics into Maryland in 1991, and owns one of the only full time clinic in Maryland, as well as the only dedicated, state approved, higher education school in the Eastern USA.
She founded both PC-MEDS and the Permatasia Convention and is now planning to expand the school to other states.

Roxanne Zarafonetis, Lasting Effects TM and PC-MEDS would like to acknowledge many people who have opened the doors along the way; working with both the School and PC-MEDS to create these milestones. None of these accomplishments would be possible without them. Thank you to:

Dean Kendall- Maryland Higher Education Commission.
The MD Higher Education Commission Board/ School approval.
Nuclear Medicine Technology Jt. Review C. - Model for Standards
The Virginia Cosmetology Board/ Ms. Minor , Board members & Board. Adm. Mr. Ferguson.
The PC-MEDS Exam Board- Mary Cerne, BC-PCT & Susan Boyer., BC-PCT.
The Lasting Effects TM Permanent Cosmetic Instititue's next class will begin on March 18, 2007 in Timonium, Maryland.

The school website details on the training program, and can be contacted at 410-252-3994 for student admissions and partner programs. The school is state approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, and is approved through the "out of state school regulation" of the Virginia Cosmetology Board, to train students in permanent cosmetics and sit for the Virginia state boards.

###