Tattoo removal ?

[thedoc46]

Has anyone ever had a tattoo removed in the last couple of yrs? What types of procedures exist? What was the cost ? Obviously not forgetting to mention the size and colours of the original tattoo.

What was the outcome?

I have a tattoo on my leg from the late v.early 90's, and its gotta go !!!! I live in the sun and its always on show. Its about the size of an iPhone and has black outline and coloured in with red and blue..

 

[MickeyFinns]

Black is the easiest colour to remove, red is not too bad. Yellow and light blue are problematic.

Some Tattoo shops themselves do reasonably priced laser treatment but this is with the goal of lightening the tattoo enough to provide better cover up options.

I've seen various prices such as hourly and fixed price, just google it and start making phone calls is the only advice really. Many places will have online galleries of their results.

 

[J.B]

I think a picture of said tattoo is in order as a reminder of the perils of youth in the early 90s!

 

[Hagar]

Its about the size of an iPhone and has black outline and coloured in with red and blue..

Union Jack?

I have my fingers tattooed, not the cleverest thing I had done at 18 (in 1970), I have occasionally considered removal but never got around to it.

 

[stiv121]

Could maybe ask about a cover up tat, my dad got tattoos he did himself when he was younger covers up pretty good.

 

[MBennett]

I don't have any tattoos but I attended a lecture on it as part of my MSc in laser engineering and saw it being done at a hospital. Basically the principle is to fracture the ink into smaller segments that the body can process (the reason tattoos remain is because the skin is unable to 'deal' with the ink and rather than remove it, it just puts a barrier around it and leaves it).

The laser itself is q switched which means it gives out a very short pulse of intense light. The laser does not look like how you might image on James bond but is a rather boring 'block' with a fibre optic cable running into the back which the operator manually scans over the skin. Each 'zap' is about 3mm in diameter and are done so that they overlap each other, so to process a 5cm x 5cm tattoo may need approx 250 zaps.
I'm told the zaps are very painful, like a hot needle and the pictures of the skin immediately after treatment look horrible and very sore. The skin will need at least a week to heal after each treatment and the number of treatments required varies depending on the pigment used as some mentioned above. Typically you will need at least 20 treatments at £100 a go for a 5cm x 5cm tattoo (circa 2007 prices) but may need upto 40.
The success rate depends on the tattoo but some can appear to have almost fully gone whilst others just appear faded and blotchy.

Hope that helps - even if it is hardly good news!

 

[pingwing]

Buy a time machine and force your self in the past not to get the tattoo, then think of a good reason to get a time machine that doesn't involve it to ensure there is no time paradox and the universe explodes (for you).

Good luck and post pictures of said tattoo as that is the rule of the internet!