Painful and expensive removal of tattoos

Skin jewelery: how tattoos can be painfully removed again

01/05/2012

Many people regret old tattoo youth sins, which are on the arms, legs, buttocks, upper body and even on the face. Although the tattoos can be painfully removed in hindsight, but the results often leave much to be desired. In some cases visible scarring remains and some colors can never be completely removed.

Especially in the summer most want to finally show skin again. Then everything becomes visible, which hid so far under the clothing. For some, the tattoos are beautiful skin jewelry and for other juvenile sins that are quickly gone. On the „Etching tattoos on the skin“ Specialists have also specialized in numerous tattoo studios.
Roy Vinnai, from Tübingen „Piercing & Tattoo Remover Studio“ explained to the „world“, why his customers want their characters and symbols removed. "They want to free themselves from their youthful sins." In the past, the engraved characters may have been iconic, but today they are not just seen in the scene as a taste aberration.

Youthful deer over the tailbone
Katrin Kahler (37) from Burgdorf near Hannover is still annoyed today. „At that time I did not think about it at all“. The speech is of the famous „antler“ over the buttocks. Just above the tailbone hundreds of thousands of women in Germany carry a portrait over the buttocks. „I had a black tribal stabbed at that time“, Kahler reports. „In my youth, I found the picture very chic, but today in adulthood, I dare hardly go to the pool“. Kahler has arranged an appointment with a dermatologist. He should now assess whether a distance is possible and how long it takes.

Others have to remove their skin pictures because otherwise they could have problems at work. Vinnai reports that a father had taken his daughter to the studio because she wanted to start training as an insurance clerk. The tattoo on his arm had to be gone, so that the respectability takes no harm. Often, however, customers also want to have their old love words and shortcuts removed. Hardly anyone wants to wear the name of their ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend on their skin when love is long gone.

Laser treatment for tattoo removal: Green color usually remains
The only method to remove the tattoos without skin incision is the treatment with a laser device. By fast, violent waves of the laser evaporate the color pigments. Would the waves go slowly?, „would burn the skin“, like the specialist in dermatology, Dr. med. Bernd Datz told the newspaper. The dermatologist is the owner of a laser clinic in Tübingen. For every color, the physician has a special device and corresponding wavelength. The doctor reports that a laser for the black color has 1064 Newton meters. For example, black tattoo color is used for Japanese characters in the studios. For the reds, the skin specialist uses a device with 532 Newton meters. It becomes difficult with the green colors. For example, a customer wanted to have a sailboat with a sea removed. The sea was the color green. After the laser treatment was „the green sea is still there ".

Painful therapy without local anesthesia
The therapy is performed without general anesthesia or local local anesthetic. Otherwise, it could be that „Forming scars“, like Datz opposite „world“ says. Local anesthesia forms moisture in the skin. This swells then. Together with the laser beams, scars would be created.

The tattoo removal hurts at least as much as tattooing itself. „When I first got treatment, I had to pull myself together a lot“, reports Kahler. A procedure is not enough to make the picture fade completely. It may take a long time for the tattoo to completely disappear. After each removal therapy, a recovery phase is important. It often takes at least four weeks for the next session to be taken. „I have to remove at least ten times until the tattoo is hopefully gone“, Kathrin Kahler tells after her first meeting. Vinnai confirms, as a rule, ten sessions, therefore nine months treatment the average.

It gets complicated when the tattoos are not engraved in a studio, but probably with a home-made machine. „The colors are usually placed in much deeper layers of the skin“, tells Helge A., tattoo artist from Hannover. He advises clients in such cases to think about a new and more attractive tattoo „to sting over“, as he says. In his opinion, complete removal in such cases is extremely difficult.

Sometimes the removal can last for years, as the dermatologist Datz explains. He had cases that lasted up to two years. During the summer months, treatment often has to be stopped because of sunshine and heat. Not to be missed is the reference of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. The risk assessors believe that laser therapy may involve some health risks because the exact interactions of chemical compounds during laser irradiation are still unclear.

How Expensive is a Tattoo Removal?
A tattoo removal is not cheap and is not covered by the health insurance, although there is evidence that the colors pose a health risk. About 100 euros cost depending on the provider a session. If a complex image needs to be removed, it can cost between 1000 and 2000 euros. A laser therapy is thus often more expensive than the tattoo once tasted itself.

If the tattoos have just been set, they can not be removed immediately, Vinnai explains. At least six months must pass before the anchor on the forearm or the skull on the shoulder can be removed. „I advise everyone to rethink, if you really want to carry the picture with you for a lifetime“, therefore advises Kahler from personal experience. And the doctor says everyone should at least „Check five times if you really want the tattoo. "A good method is to look at the subject for six months each day before it is actually tattooed, avoiding quick-action when selecting the subject. (sb)

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Pictures: Sabrina Gonstalla, Verena N.