Burn victim creates booming business tattooing over scars

At just 2 years old, Basma Hameed was horrifically burned by hot oil in a kitchen accident in her native country, Iraq, CBC News reports. The incident left half her face covered by red discoloration, even after undergoing over 100 different procedures. Her plastic surgeon suggested that she "take [her] money and go on a vacation."
This advice didn't sit well with Hameed. After replacing one of her eyebrows through cosmetic tattooing, she wondered why the same couldn't be done for skin pigmentation. Before beginning work on her own face, she began researching the emerging field of para-medical tattooing, went to school, and opened her own Toronto clinic in 2011. Since then, she's treated people with vitiligo, breast cancer survivors, and burn victims like herself.
"I think that I'm good at para-medical scar camouflage because I was able to work on myself, and I was able to see the process of it," Hameed says."I am proud of myself for not giving up, but what I'm mostly proud of is the reaction [I get] from people."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Political cartoons for October 21
Cartoons Tuesday’s political cartoons include a high-profile theft, Epstein files keeping Donald Trump up at night, Halloween costumes and scary GOP stories
-
Five things we learnt from Virginia Giuffre’s memoir
The Explainer Nobody’s Girl recounts ‘harrowing’ details of Giuffre’s suffering as a teenage victim of Jeffrey Epstein and his circle
-
Prince Andrew: a timeline of disgraced royal’s Epstein scandal
In Depth How the Queen’s favourite child went from Falklands War hero to public pariah
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial unease
Speed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B deal
speed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance