Tattoos are generally permanent, but sometimes the idea of tattoo removal comes up: you wake up one morning and realize that calligraphy work you got done on your arm last year -- you know, the one that says "Linda" or "Stan" -- isn't something you want to look at anymore, since, really, you don't want to see Linda or Stan anymore either. Or, perhaps, you've just turned 40 and you no longer think the tattoos you marked yourself with at eighteen really go with your business attire. What do you do? Or, really, what can you do?
Thankfully, there are a lot of options. Aside from factors like the tattoo's size and placement, it's really a matter of how much money you want to spend (tattoos may cost $200 or so to get, but the cost of tattoo removal is often ten times the price paid for them), how long you are willing to take for the procedure, and how much pain you feel like dealing with.
Laser tattoo removal is considered by many to be the best method available. After numbing the skin with a cream, pulses of laser light are pointed at the tattoo, causing the pigment to break up. After the procedure, the pigmented areas are removed by scavenger cells in the body. It can take several weeks, and often more than one treatment.
Other procedures involve chemical peels -- also known as trichloroacetic acid tattoo removal -- which involves applying an acid to the skin that causes peeling -- it is cost-effective but often leaves scarring. Glycolic acid removal involves tattooing the acid into your skin which turns the ink into a scab which can be removed and supposedly causes less scarring than laser. Infrared coagulation burns the skin and turns the ink into a scab which can be taken off, like with glycolic acid. Tattoo removal creams are probably the least effective because creams can't get down to the deep layers needed to remove the tattoos.
It's also important to know that in most cases, taking off the entire tattoo is next to impossible, leaving variations in skin tone or possible blemishes and scarring. It depends on the removal method, how well the tattoo was done, how well you heal, how long you've had the tattoo, how large it is, and where it was placed. So next time you're ready to get a tattoo, be very sure of what you're doing because sometimes having a tattoo you don't like is better than dealing with tattoo removal.
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