Australia now has a Board Certified MicroPigmentation Instructor

It is the constant formal academic evaluation and testing as distinct from informal demonstration and workshops that build credibility and legitimacy to the body of knowledge within a profession.

It is interesting to see the same things taking place within the cosmetic and medical tattoo industry, increasingly instructors seem to be looking beyond of their own local networks for education and formal evaluation by educators in other countries and from the health industry. When you consider that this mirrors the activity of the health professionals this has to be a good thing for the credibility of the Cosmetic & Medical Tattoo industry.

It is official Australia now has a Board Certified Micropigmentation Instructor or CMI as they are known in the inner circles, I asked Andrea Darby to take some time out from her busy schedule for a brief interview to explain to us what it means to be certified by the American Academy of Micropigmentation both for her and for her colleagues in Australia.

Interview

Chris Adams: There are a number of different cosmetic tattoo associations around the globe can you tell us what is different about the American Academy of Micropigmentation?

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: The AAM are an industry association that was founded by medical specialists and their board and executive group are health professionals and micropigmentation experts, quite simply they are unsurpassed in regards to their collective qualifications, experience and credibility.

Chris Adams: What is involved in becoming certified by the American Academy of Micropigmentation?

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI:  A member of the association can sit an exam to become a certified fellow of the AAM, becoming a diplomat is essentially saying that the micropigmentation practitioner has been independently assessed and is providing services at an exceptional standard.

Chris Adams: So a Diplomat would be considered a role model for the industry or in other words a technician who has been assessed and is demonstrating a high standards in their practice.

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: Yes that is a pretty good description, it should provide clients and other technicians a degree of confidence that the DAAM knows what they are doing.

Chris Adams: What is involved in becoming a Board Certified Instructor?

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: It involves another formal exam and assessment by a member of the Academy executive and the quality of the instructors training content is also assessed.

Chris Adams: I believe that in Australia you already have a formal system for training and assessment for vocational educators how does that differ to being a CMI?

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: Yes that is correct I am a certified Workplace Trainer with formal Qualifications, a Certificate IV in Training & Assessment. Its part of the quality assurance system that we have in Australia for vocational education which helps to ensure that the developers and presenters of vocational courses and training programs have themselves undergone formal education for that purpose. I think in this regard Australia is heading in the right direction with vocational education, of course there is always room for improvement.

Chris Adams: So what does it mean for you personally and for Australia to now have a AAM Board Certified Micropigmentation Instructor?

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: Of course for me personally it is a great honour and it is a validation of all the hard work that we put into our training courses, for Australia it is recognition by the pre-eminent industry association that we have Micropigmentation training here that is of an international standard and I think that is quite a significant statement when you consider the qualifications of the Board and Executive of the AAM.

Chris Adams: Would prestige be the key word?

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: Absolutely.

Chris Adams: Moving forward what is next on the agenda for you?

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: In addition to private client services, training courses, and my own ongoing education we have a lot of different projects that we are working on. For example we have some revolutionary new needle designs that we have created that are being evaluated by the R&D people and we also plan to return to the USA to conduct some seminars.

Chris Adams: Thank you for making time for the interview and congratulations on your achievement.

Andrea Darby DAAM, CMI: Thanks Chris my pleasure.

Geographically Australia may be a long way from the rest of the world but it looks as if their Micropigmentation specialists are getting noticed on the international stage thanks to experts like Andrea Darby, it is also interesting to see their industry starting to emulate part of the academic path that most of the health professions have also taken.

Over time who knows where that may lead it is possible that we may see a closer integration between the Micropigmentation industry and the education providers of one or more of the health professions, but in the mean time they have their Board Certified Micropigmentation Instructors to reply on.

Date of most recent revision: 14/11/2014 (mutatis mutandis)
Original publication date: 14/11/2014

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