FTC Accuses Makeup School Owner of Fraud : Regulation: An ex-husband of Lana Turner is charged with bilking cosmetologists out of $1.5 million.

A former nightclub hypnotist who once was married to actress Lana Turner has been accused of bilking cosmetologists out of $1.5 million through his training courses in “permanent makeup.”

The Federal Trade Commission obtained a temporary restraining order Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to freeze assets of Ronald Dante, alleged owner of Perma-Derm Academy in Fountain Valley. The order also restrains Dante from claiming that his course certifies people to become licensed or board-certified “dermalogists,” that graduates will earn $500 an hour or more and that the process is painless.

The FTC is also asking the court to make Dante repay $1.5 million to thousands of students who didn’t get what they paid for in 1988. A hearing on a preliminary injunction is scheduled March 12.

The academy uses the term “dermalogy” to describe its permanent makeup technique, in which practitioners use tattoo needles to apply pigment to the skin, permanently shaping eyebrows, eye lines and lip lines.

“We never heard of dermalogy,” said Sondra L. Mills, an FTC attorney. “It’s a term we only trace to Dante. He coined it.”

Dante, who the FTC says has at least 12 aliases, could not be reached for comment. He served two years in an Arizona prison for plotting to kill a rival hypnotist, according to the FTC. He was married to Turner for six months in 1968.

Dante operates a hypnosis institute in Huntington Beach and first got into “dermalogy” in 1987.

Students attend the academy’s two-day seminar at hotels around the country. It costs nearly $2,000 to register and $300 to $500 for a tattooing machine and start-up supplies, the FTC officials said. In classes, students use an ordinary tattooing machine to practice on bananas, pig’s ears and oranges. At the end of the course, students receive diplomas and become certified as “dermalogists” without any testing, the FTC said.

Dante’s lawyer, Peter Bersin, told City News Service that the Perma-Derm course was legitimate and had been running for several years without problems. “It’s our belief that the Perma-Derm process has been successfully implemented by many graduates who are happy with the course, who are making good money and we don’t feel that we have done anything wrong,” he said.

Robert Jennings Gold, who identified himself as “executive adviser” to Perma-Derm Academy, said Friday that the FTC is going after the academy only because Dante has a bad reputation. Gold also denied that Dante is the academy’s owner, although he added that he does not know who the owner is.

Gold said the process is an effective, “modern form of tattooing” that is “virtually painless.”

“He (Dante) says it’s painless,” said Marcy J. K. Tiffany, director of the FTC’s Los Angeles office. “By using this machine on the eyes and lips, it definitely causes pain,” she said.

According to the FTC, the workshops were held in some 20 states that prohibit tattooing unless it is performed by licensed physicians. California allows lay professionals to practice.