Tattoo Removal

What To Do With A Tattoo You Loathe

I Hate My Tattoo

They say it's not good to have regrets, but the sad truth is that some of us do. And sometimes those regrets are permanently inked on our bodies.

Tattoos are supposed to be forever, and hopefully when you got yours, you probably believed it would be.

But now, it's faded and stretched and nobody can make sense of it. The words are blurry, the image looks more like a smudge.

You're beginning to forget that it was once a snazzy bit of body art complete with your high school sweetheart's name emblazoned across it or you are tired (and possibly embarrassed) of having to explain to your children - or grandchildren - who Billy Bob was.

Unfortunately, as you age the inks in the tattoo have a tendency to migrate and lose their vibrancy. This creates smudged mono-color tattoos.

As you put on weight or lose muscle tone, the entire design can become distorted and plan ugly looking.

It's got to go.

Dealing with Old Tattoos

When you're dealing with a tattoo that's lost its appeal, you have two options: cover it up or remove it.

The cover up could be temporary using makeup. Or you can try to cover an old tattoo with a new one.

Covering up one tattoo with another could create further problems down the road, since the second tattoo is likely to become as faded as the first did. This is a desirable option for folks who like tattoos but not the ones they happen to have.

You also run the risk of covering up your first tattoo with one that you like well enough right now, but may come to loathe in the years to come.

A more attractive option to people who've grown to dislike their ink work is to remove the tattoo through a tattoo removal laser procedure.

The laser will set off a chemical reaction with the tattoo ink, breaking it down. The body then absorbs the broken-down ink, and the tattoo is eliminated, but not completely.

Most tattoo removal procedures will leave faint scarring, though as the technology of tattoo removal evolves, such scarring is likely to lessen and results are expected to be more pleasing.

Getting a tattoo removed is more painful than getting a tattoo in the first place. If your tattoo was painful, removing it could be excruciating.

The severity of the pain corresponds directly with the thickness and sensitivity of the skin area where the tattoo is located. Thicker skin, often in areas of the body that are more exposed than others, does not involve as much pain either for tattooing or for removal.

We all make mistakes. If one of your mistakes was that tattoo you got decades ago, then you can count yourself lucky because modern science has found a way to help you correct your mistake.

Just be prepared for the possibility of light scarring, which will probably be preferable to a tattoo you detest and a little more discomfort than you experienced when you originally got your tattoo.

This article is for informational purposes only. It does not purport to offer medical advice.