Being a nail technician is more than polishing

THE art of ‘doing nails’ is no longer about applying artificial nails to one’s fingers as a means of adding to a woman’s confidence and style. For Tataum Grenville, a 25-year-old young and upcoming nail technician in Linden, who has taken social media by storm with her unique, creative, artistic and theme trending nails; doing nails is practising art, it is taking your creative skills to the next level.

In fact, she described herself as a perfectionist; someone who puts everything into getting every aspect of nail application on her clients perfectly done, so that when they step out of her nail salon, necks must be turning from afar.

Grenville has exerted a lot of time and energies into studying nail application and designing. Her motto is be nothing close to mediocre and so she goes above and beyond to make her clients satisfied. Since she established her nail salon in the Wismar Municipal Market in Linden in 2015, she has captured an overwhelming clientele, even from the diaspora. Not even a plane ticket was too much to have one’s nails done by Grenville. “I am a perfectionist, so the shape has to be perfect; the polishing has to perfect; the design has to be perfect; the colour coordination has to be perfect; everything has to be perfect because I love, love what I do,” she said.

While there are international nail technicians whom she gains inspiration from, she never duplicates their designs since it is her motto to have her very own signature. “ I believe my designs are far from the ordinary because I seek inspiration from basically anything: fashion, food, a country- because I don’t like my work to be basic. I don’t want it to look like anyone else. I want when people see nails on one of my clients they must be like ‘Oh, Ebony did that’. I want my work to always have a signature,” she told the Pepperpot Magazine.

What makes Tataum so different is that she puts a lot into being creative. She studies nail artistry and applies it in her own way. She has been designing nails according to trends, fashion, fruits, season, food and even countries. Wakanda, Gucci, Mama Africa and Christmas are just some of her theme designs that were well received on social media. Ebony has mastered the art of bringing the nails alive with three-dimensional flowers, animals and other artistry with the acrylic; so it’s no longer used only in the application stage but the designing stage as well.

She revealed that she puts everything into her work; time, patience, effort and concentration and also invests a lot of money to make sure her clients are satisfied every time. Tataum not only does nails for a living, but posits that she enjoys tremendously what she does and that is why she is so good at it.

While many may have preferred she pursued a traditional career where she would have sat in an office, she has no regrets in following her calling. “It’s a hobby that I get paid for, six days a week. I get up and go and be creative. I don’t feel like I am working. It is so much fun. I don’t have any regrets going down this path,” she said.

She encourages other youths to find their calling and follow it, as this would make life much easier and also so much fun.