Tattoo Undo

A tattoo expo called The Biggest Tattoo Show on Earth seems like an unlikely place for a tattoo removal information booth. Or maybe it doesn’t. After all, all of the people coming to the convention are interested in tattoos and maybe some will find that they don’t want what they thought they wanted at the time that they got it put on to their skin. At least that must be the thinking behind the Undo Tattoo booth which had a spot at this year’s 6th Annual expo in New Jersey.

The booth was run by Dr. Douglas Ashendorf, a Livingston-based pain medicine specialist who was on site to let the tattoo aficionados know about their options for removing the items they’d just gotten put on at the expo. It can be thrilling to get yourself a tattoo in the midst of a convention like that so it’s nice to know what your options are if you wake up in the morning and realize that your spontaneous tattoo choice was a mistake. Ashendorf’s service is said to be painless and come at a cost of $50 per square inch.

Learn more about the expo here.

There’s a great quote in a recent article over at DailyProgress.com which touches on the reasons behind getting a tattoo removed.

“It’s a process many are willing to endure because removing a tattoo, like getting one, is a personal statement."

This quote comes from a story about a man who is choosing to remove two of his sixty tattoos including the teardrops that are located on his eye. He cites the reason as being because these tattoos are from a different time of his life and that they are no longer what he wants people to see when they look at him.

Getting a tattoo is a highly personal act. The image and placement of the tattoo may have great significant meaning for the person who is getting them. Even when they aren’t highly significant, they reflect the person’s choices, beliefs and interests at the time that the tattoo is received.

But what many people don’t realize is that getting a tattoo removed can be just as personal. People change and we should be allowed to adapt our appearances to reflect those internal changes. Tattoo removal helps facilitate this process for people who feel that they’ve moved on from the era during which they got their tattoos.

If you’re thinking about removing your tattoo, you may want to hold up for a second and think about all of your options. While tattoo removal is increasingly popular (due in no small part to the fact that it’s more widely accessible and affordable than in years past), it’s not the only option that is out there for getting rid of the image that you no longer want on your body. Many people who are considering getting tattoo removal are planning to get the tattooed area recovered with a new design. If this is the case for you, lightening the tattoo might be a better choice than actually having it removed.

An article over at NorthJersey.com lets one tattoo lightener and removal artist, Mario Barth of Starlight Tattoos, give his two cents on the opinion. He claims that most people who come in wanting changes to their tattoos don’t want them actually removed, just altered, and he cites the number of people who want actual tattoo removal as being less than one percent. Of course, this could be due to the fact that Barth has strongly voiced opinions that tattoos aren’t meant to be removed except for purposes of social rehabilitation. Perhaps in places that are more pro-removal, the numbers are different.

In any case, you should know that tattoo lightening is an option to consider. Like tattoo removal, tattoo lightening is a process done by a doctor using a laser. The process is essentially the same; tattoo removal just takes more treatments to get the job done. If you’re simply looking to lighten up the tattoo so that you can replace it with a different design (or the name of the new fiancee instead of the old one), you can save the cost on the extra treatments by choosing lightening.

We’ll be honest; there are drawbacks to tattoo removal. The process isn’t painless as many people would like it to be; in fact, in some cases tattoo removal can be more painful than getting the tattoo was in the first place. Additionally, tattoo removal continues to be expensive despite the fact that costs have gone down due to increased availability of the service. And tattoo removal doesn’t only cost money; it costs time to go get the treatments done. Despite this, tattoo removal is causing a surge in dermatology offices which is a testimony to the fact that it meets a need in the community even with the drawbacks.

Getting a tattoo removed can be a painful procedure. Laser tattoo removal is a less painful option than the other choices that are out there (such as surgical excision of the tattoo). As technology improves, the pain of tattoo removal should decrease. Topical anesthetics can be used to decrease the pain especially when removing larger area tattoos. Although this pain can be a deterrent to tattoo removal, it’s not stopping people from looking in to the procedure. Tattoo regret is fairly common and sometimes the pain and embarrassment of having a tattoo that you don’t want is greater than the physical pain of getting it removed.

Of course, there is the cost to think about. Not only does laser tattoo removal cost money itself but it costs you in treatment time. Laser tattoo removal doesn’t remove most tattoos in one shot. Tattoos that are in hard-to-remove places (such as wrists and ankles), tattoos which use hard-to-remove colors (such as yellow) and large-scale tattoos all require multiple laser treatments for successful removal. But when compared to the amount of time you’re going to spend looking at that tattoo for the rest of your life, it could be well worth it.

A non-profit organization in Detroit which helps people get their tattoos removed for free is celebrating its tenth anniversary this month. The Detroit Hispanic Development Corp. offers a number of different services to members in the community which assist them in developing themselves and contributing to society. These services include everything from GED classes to STD screening. And yes, one of these services is laser tattoo removal. (Learn more here.)

Many of the people that receive assistance from the Detroit Hispanic Development Corp. have pasts which are checkered with stints in prison, years in gangs and other negative experiences. Many times, they received tattoos which commemorate these experiences. As they try to re-enter society, they often find that they have a difficult time because employers and others look at these tattoos and simply can’t see past them. Laser tattoo removal lets them get rid of the unwanted tattoos so that they have a fair chance to show the changes that they’ve made since the time when these tattoos were first received.

The Skin and Vein Centers in Detroit are the ones that provide the skills to remove the tattoos. Using standard laser tattoo removal technology, they make these procedures affordable to the non-profit agency to do their part in assisting the community.