Her dark, expressive make-up and warped, edited pictures balance on a thread between gorgeous and ghoulish
The Dazed Beauty Community is our ever-expanding encyclopaedia of creatives and emerging talent from across the world who are redefining the way we think about beauty. From supermodels to digital artists to makeup prodigies transforming themselves in their bedrooms, these are the beauty influencers of tomorrow who embody everything Dazed Beauty is about. Discover them here.
“My name is Tommy, I was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I am an artist, teacher, model, wizard, professional rager, uncontrollable force. Brooklyn is deeply embedded in my soul. If you cut me open you would hear "yurrrr" seeping from the seams.”
Just one glance at Tomasyn Hayes’ Instagram and you’ll see why she’s part of our community – she’s ruthlessly taking apart beauty standards and rebuilding them with bold, dark, expressive make-up and warped, edited pictures that balance on a thread between gorgeous and ghoulish.
When she’s not busy uploading spooky photos, Tomasyn designs and manages her own clothing line, Rips & Tears: clothing for “otherworldly creatures that play on this realm.” It’s all hand painted and it’s just as creepy as her make-up. Tomasyn teaches SFX make-up to middle school children - trying to disrupt the hegemonic beauty standards that kids are immersed in and “be an icon and an inspiration to all the little black weirdos that ain't feel like they had a place in this world.”
What is it you do and why do you do it?
I teach SFX make-up to middle school students. We use a lot of fake blood in my classes. My identity always trickles into the work I do with them because I want them to understand that there is a multitude of creative fields to enter and self-expression has no bounds. I want to continue to be the version of myself that I needed when I was their age. I want to be boundless with my creativity for the 16-year-old me that didn't think she'd make it past 18. I do what I do for anyone who felt like the world didn't give a fuck about them and that who they are and chose to be would never be accepted.
What’s your career highlight?
Having my artistic solo debut in 2017 was definitely a career highlight. Being seen and respected by the artists I've grown up admiring and getting to work with them is always gratifying. Walking in fashion week for the first time was totally a "holy shit" moment.
What are you working on at the moment?
Currently I'm working on a series of hand painted shirts and jackets depicting subjects in their otherworldly personas to help people live vicariously through their truest depictions of their souls that go beyond human capabilities. I'm also working on my second solo art show intended to submerge my viewers in a phantasmagoric state of interdimensional transformation (stay tuned!)
You’ve opted to be cryogenically frozen in hopes of continuing the human race. When you’re awoken it’ll be your responsibility to kick-start the breeding. How will you wear your hair on your first date?
My hair on my first date after being frozen would definitely be a blue, purple and red mullet that goes all the way down to my feet, blue cheetah print undercut, and multiple ponytails adorned in gold bug barrettes. Just so this person knows I mean business.
It’s the year 2100. You’re the owner of the largest beauty tech company in the world, what five products or treatments will you dedicate your resources trying to invent?
The ability to morph your flesh into reptilian, dragon, bug and animal skin, print and textures (including wings and other anatomical features). Wigs that can morph to your scalp permanently. Digitally changing contacts. Fang installations that didn't make you talk with a lisp, and lip gloss that always pops and never smudges or smears and does that glowy glitter thing that one app does, all the time.
You’ve had an accident which causes you to lose your sense of smell. The doctors can’t return it fully but can give you the ability to smell one scent. What do you pick and why?
The scent I'd probably want forever is the smell of the fall season. Like if night time in the woods, cold air, Halloween, and renaissance fairs was one smell, I'd want to smell that forever.
A friend once exclaimed that when he dies he wants 'Weeping virgins carved from marble to be placed in a circle around his grave'. What would your ideal tombstone look like?
My ideal tombstone would be a black iridescent, glittery marble bathhouse with stained glass depictions of nature. Natural lighting, monarch butterflies flying in the distance. Warm and still. Water under your feet. A 10 foot gold hand in the center that contains my ashes with my name and eulogy written in red in old english font on the floor beneath you. When you touch the hand you can feel me, you can feel the impact I had on this world. You can feel my whole life in that touch, and then you cry and your life is changed forever.