Tattoo Removal: Regrets and Modern Solutions

When you were 18 years old you wanted to express yourself as an adult. The great idea you came up with was a tattoo! Your spirit animal on your forearm was the perfect expression of you. Now you are 23, trying to get a job, and realize that you paid hundreds of dollars for someone to tattoo your spirit animal where everyone can see it, and it didn’t even turn out that great.

Regret is defined as a feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over something that has happened or been done. Does that sound like how you’re feeling? Did you know that 1 in 5 people with tattoos regret it? Why do 20% of people want their tattoos removed?

Here are 5 reasons to remove your unwanted tattoo:

1. Recent Breakup - The First Commandment of getting inked is to never get your significant other’s name tattooed on your body because you never know if the relationship will end.

2. Change in Interests - Something you think is so relevant in your life at one point, might not be years later.

3. Maturity - When you are young, you think the Nike slogan “just do it” is your motto. Like the example above, the spirit animal sounded like an awesome idea in the beginning, until you realized having a spirit animal wasn’t for you anymore.

4. Career - A researcher at University of Tampa discovered that a majority of students believe that tattoos are an impediment to being hired.

5. Poor Quality - Let’s be honest, some tattoo artists are just not that great.

So how do you go about getting a tattoo removed?

One ancient method that was developed in the Middle East used Salabrasion (rubbing salt on your skin to heat it, then scraping off the layers of skin). Ouch. An alternative option would be to use trichloroacetic acid to make the skin peel. Excision, or surgical removal, of the tattoo is also an option.

The most advanced technique today is laser tattoo removal with the picosecond technology in the PicoWay and PicoSure lasers. Picosecond technology is the biggest advance in tattoo removal lasers in 20 years. The PicoWay and PicoSure lasers use ultra-short pulses to hit the ink particles in a way that shatters the ink into dust-like remains. These dust-like ink particles can then be easily absorbed and eliminated by the body.

Picosecond laser treatments requires fewer treatments than the older Q-Switches lasers. Laser tattoo patients and doctors have also reported better clearance of the tattoo, seeing results in half the time of older technology. So next time you find yourself thinking how it would be to get that butterfly on your foot or remove the exgirlfriends name, contact a doctor like Dr. Crofts who uses the most advanced technology for the best results. And remember you are not alone in wanting to get rid of that tattoo.