“I’ve been wearing long sleeves for a long time because I hate my tattoos. I look in the mirror and see myself dirty, stained.” The phrase is from Paula Gallardo (26 years old), who started tattooing at the age of 14. A year and a half ago she decided to start erasing all the ink from her body, including the names of her ex’s. Iván wants to continue having most of his tattoos, but he is removing the one on his knuckles for work reasons. Modeling work was the reason Nicole delayed getting tattooed. She now she can’t stop and she takes it off and puts it on. And it is that the trend of the untattooed grows almost at the same speed that the tattoo does. The reasons are diverse, although there are some that are repeated: wanting to remove the reference to an ex-partner from the skin, work reasons or being fed up with one or more tattoos. The process is long, painful and expensive, which is why experts advise that it should not be done lightly.
Paula Gallardo, who works in an aesthetic clinic, started tattooing despite her parents’ disapproval. She, at 17, already had most of the tattoos that stain her skin –especially on the arms, legs and abdomen- and that she has begun to eliminate completely. No names of ex-partners will survive – a classic of erasure – not even one in tribute to her mother. She also deletes the names of friends “with whom I no longer speak.” The only thing that saves her is the word Bombón, the name of her dog. He is located on the wrist, one of the most painful areas, along with the fingers, to remove tattoos. Paula stoically endures –anesthetic cream through- the nearly hour-long process of the fourth tattoo removal session thanks to her high pain tolerance, but her face twists as the laser passes through her hand. The ordeal is intense, but it is worth it for the skin reset.
Removes tattoos Marc Esclusa (Laserlight Shoots), who has been removing ink from the skin for almost two decades. That is why he does not tire of repeating that both the decision to get a tattoo and to remove it must be considered, especially due to the outlay of money that he supposes.
During the session, the inflammation that the technique has caused in the arms of this Barcelonan is already noticeable. As the hours go by, the swelling will increase and subsequent care will be crucial for the removal process to go from strength to strength. The pain from the laser, similar to what “hundreds of bee stings” could cause, says Esclusa, and the subsequent inflammation are the toll that Paula must pay to see her arms clean. She is already 70% of that way. But you have to go step by step, to respect the deadlines of the laser and also to look at her pocket. She calculates that she must have spent about 1,000 euros on tattoos –although many of them were free or at a discount- and in the process of removing them she has already had to invest more than double.
“The more tattoos, the more regrets,” says dermatologist DonÃs Muñoz. Passionate about the world of tattooing, he uses a pico-second laser, which “generates fewer adverse effects” and explains that sometimes “real challenges” or clients with scars come to his office, after having tried to remove the tattoo with an “operator”. not doctor. He claims that these scars rarely occur when the removal of tattoos is performed by a dermatologist because “he early detects the first signs of skin suffering” and believes that the operator who is not capable of diagnosing and treating possible complications in time “should not engage in remove tattoos.
An important part of the clients who come to the consultation of the dermatologist Jaime Piquero-Casals also come “rebounded”. Some had gone to centers that have a “basic” machine that is capable of giving results on small tattoos but may not be as effective in other cases, he explains. Robbie Flaviani, a tattoo artist, is in favor of referring to a dermatologist because often “the results are not the same.” He assures that he has seen “authentic barbarities”, such as leaving the skin with relief.
Marc Esclusa claims that the use of lasers for aesthetic purposes is possible, but acknowledges that “you have to have good equipment.” And it’s the device he uses that draws a lot of Laserlight Shoots’ clientele. Given that more and more people get and remove tattoos and that even to get a new one or a cover (cover one tattoo with another) it is good to go through the laser, he believes that it is “essential” that tattoo studios have one . Esclusa always emphasizes to clients that tattoo removal is a long and expensive process. And this causes “many people to get frustrated.”
Jaime Piquero-Casals spends 5% of the day erasing tattoos. He uses a Q-switch laser, which destroys the tattoo into small particles that are then “going to be engulfed by the organism.” The dermatologist says that so that there is no scar, the erasure must be done in several sessions, taking care of the wound -because it becomes injured- the days after and avoiding tanning the skin afterwards. That is why it is not recommended to do it in the summer months. The time to clear is not standard. It varies depending on the size, but also on the color or if it has been reviewed or not. Except in very specific cases, an average of between six and ten sessions is needed, says Piquero-Casals.
There is no profile of the type of person who decides to remove a tattoo. And the reasons are not homogeneous either. Visible areas such as arms, legs or neck are among the most requested, says Katia Elez, spokesperson for Tattoo Cleaners, a company dedicated to the cause for a decade and which boasts of having already removed 40,000 tattoos. Marc Esclusa receives many requests from people who on the beach rediscover tattoos they had and no longer like. Especially among the youngest there is what Esclusa baptizes as an ephemeral tattoo: “They get a tattoo and after a week they no longer want it.”
Also the names of ex-partners engraved in a moment of love are another of the tattoos that most dissidents have. “An acquaintance asked me to tattoo the name of her partner on her neck and after three months they separated and she wanted to erase it,” says tattoo artist Robbie Flaviani. On the other side, the dermatologist Piquero-Casals explains that he has had patients who have come to erase something related to an ex and that after three sessions they have reconciled and get the name tattooed again. But he has never deleted a pet’s name. Neither he nor the majority of those consulted.
Eight years ago, Iván Lecha removed a tattoo related to an ex from his abdomen. He now he wants to remove one of the knuckles. He has just passed the opposition to be an urban guard and has decided to remove the IRON from his left hand (he has drawings on his arm, leg or chest) because he has been told that he “does not like” in the academy.
And work is one of the reasons why many people decide to remove a tattoo. Klara De Witte is 22 years old and works as a model. She got her first tattoo when she was only 12 years old and she got to be eight, but she took off four at a time three years ago for work. She remembers that taking it off was more painful than having it done. And also more expensive. But despite that, she does not rule out making new engravings.
Nicole Chlpac, a 29-year-old Argentine, also gets and removes tattoos. She doesn’t even remember how many she wears now, although she took a while to get them done because she worked as a model and her mother didn’t like them. That’s why the first one went secretly at the age of 16. And when she quit modeling she did them all at once. Now she is removing some – for example, one on her chest that an ex did to her – but she makes new ones, although she admits that “tattoos are not to be removed as if you were taking off a T-shirtâ€. And some are “untouchable”, like the name of her dog or her grandparents.
Joana Catot defines herself as a “traveler in search of tattoos”. She studied graphic design and has been dedicated to the world of tattooing for more than two decades. She also carries two, although each of them takes up half her body. She assures that she does them for aesthetics and that is why she takes them off and puts them on regularly, because she likes the drawing to look new. And she does not believe that she mistreats the skin: “it regenerates”.
“The tribals accumulate many regrets,” says Katia Elez. One of them is Jesús, a 47-year-old quality inspector. At 23, he got what for the moment has been his only tattoo, a tribal on the shoulder that did not look good because the tattoo artist had lost the drawing. When he quit the sport and lost weight, he didn’t like the tattoo anymore and he decided to remove it. He has left his arm clean, but the result has been a real challenge for Marc Esclusa because it is a drawing that had gone through four different needles and had relief.
It is important not to rush. DonÃs Muñoz regrets that some are looking for an express deletion, for example because they must take an opposition or pass a merit test. But he warns that unless it is extremely necessary “you should not” remove a tattoo like this because to achieve it you need to use very high fluences, capable of generating scars if done by non-expert hands. He claims that removing a tattoo is something very complex because from the outset “we do not know both the characteristics of the ink and the healing capacity of the patient.”
Black ink is the easiest to erase. Also the pure red, although if it has some mixture with white ink it is more complex. At the other extreme, turquoise blue and green are quite resistant to detattooing treatment. DonÃs Muñoz explains that when a tattoo is close to the lymphatic vessels (neck, the area near the armpits or the groin) it is easier to erase. On the contrary, in ankles, wrists or fingers, it costs more. He explains that a good part of the tattoo pigment ends up being deposited naturally and for life in the regional lymph nodes, which is why they are blackened and although this is not serious at all, it can generate diagnostic errors when imaging tests such as CT are performed. or the pet.
Dr. Muñoz warns of the scant regulation of the detattooed. “Anyone can remove tattoos without qualifications” and he acknowledges that not everyone can afford the cost involved. The price of removing a medium tattoo can be around 100 euros per session, but he explains that it requires time and specialized knowledge. Amateur tattoos, like the typical one in the military, can be removed in two or three sessions, says DonÃs Muñoz. The dermatologist warns that in recent years polychrome tattoos are becoming more frequent and that to erase them “more than one laser is needed because each color requires a different wavelength and requires a greater number of sessions. At least a month and a half must be allowed to pass between sessions and if the rest period is longer, logically it will take more time to erase it, but a smaller number of sessions while obtaining better results, the experts explain. . After removing the tattoo, it is recommended to cover the wound area with a dressing for about 15 days and treat it daily with the cream that the specialist deems.
And now that the black out (an extremity all tattooed) is fashionable, the tattoo artists warn of the difficulty of erasing something like this. “It is a calico because it is very delicateâ€, warns Marc Esclusa.
