Sheila Jean May

Sheila Jean May 76 of Edgewood California, hometown of Rudyard Michigan, passed away at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica California on April 30, 2022, from carcinosarcoma cancer, a rare form of cancer, that she put into remission three times in seven years, she truly beat the odds of this terminal disease, while remaining working and active until the very end, she will be greatly missed by friends, family, clients and the animals on her ranch.

Sheila May was originally a tattoo artist, working with her husband Greg May in the 60's and 70's, then evolved the art in the early to mid 80's and was the first true inventor of permanent makeup (Dermapigmentation) and pioneered the industry, creating her own flesh tone palette to match any skin tone color seamlessly and application tools and techniques, that made her creative work and abilities stand out from the rest in a new born industry. Sheila was a true innovator and master of her craft, doing eyebrows, eyeliner and lips, initially wanting to give working women the relief of putting on makeup daily, saving them valuable time and then expanding the profession to covering/blending surgical scars, skin color defects, from people from all walks of life and taking on almost any skin imperfections to make her clients feel less self-conscience and giving them a renewed self-confidence.

Dermapigmentation is an art that, like painting takes years to perfect, you have to know color theory when you're working with pigments, because a dark lip will react differently to an applied color than a light one and everyone has their own style, some will be more like a Vermeer, others like a Picasso. You have to decide which aesthetic is going to complement you the best. The whole point, after all. is to enhance your natural beauty. May issue of Vogue magazine.

It wasn't long until the word spread to the entertainment industry and Sheila's career and reputation of Vermeer perfected treatments exploded, she became the entertainment industries silent secret weapon, for a who's who of celebrities and musicians. James Brown wrote, saying "To Sheila keep making me look better and better thanks James".

My unprofessional advice to her clients, shop carefully for your next permanent makeup artist and look at several of the people they have worked on before you begin treatments with anyone, as most already know, there was only one Sheila May.

Sheila was a very talented individual professionally and personally, this obituary could be three miles long of interesting stories and blow mind coincidences in life we shared before we got to know one another, and another three after we became good friends, our lives revolved around one another in an unbelievably strange way, it was a privilege to be her friend and someone she trusted.

I want to assure everyone Sheila did not pass away alone, I was with her until the very end, it was the most difficult promise in my life and no person in this world deserved it more than Sheila, I will love, miss and never forget her for what will seem an eternity without her for the rest of my days. gra anois agus go deo.

Loren "Woody" Woodward