Last Friday, 8/29, Dr. Kaplan came in for his first tattoo removal session.  The tattoo was fresh but well healed.  It was approximately 2 weeks after the tattoo was placed.  Dr. Kaplan had been using the Wrecking Balm on it every 3 days, but notes that it didn’t seem to affect the ink on the balm-treated half of the tattoo.

“I was a bit nervous,” referring to how it would actually feel to get the tattoo removed.  Although we describe laser tattoo removal as a “rubber band snapping-feeling,” it’s hard to know how that will feel until you get it done yourself.  As with all his patients, Dr. K first put anesthetic ointment on the tattoo and occluded it with plastic wrap.  After waiting for 30 minutes to an hour, he was ready to get treatment.

In the photos below, you can see Jeannine, our fabulous physician assistant, performing the treatment.  She holds the cooling device that blows cold air over the tattoo in one hand and the laser handle in the other.  The laser light is invisible except where it hits the skin.  Dr. K compared the feeling of the laser to that of getting the tattoo itself.  “It’s quite similar - the discomfort was about equal in intensity, but went by much faster for the tattoo removal.”

After the treatment, you can see Jeannine applying the Intensive Care aftercare ointment.  Dr. Kaplan will be back for additional sessions of tattoo removal every 4-6 weeks.  Stay posted!

Dr. Kaplan, the medical director of Tattoo MD, got a tattoo placed on his right arm last Monday. This is not something you’d expect from someone who specializes in laser tattoo removal, right? The reason he got the tattoo was not because he really wanted to have that design on his skin. It was to personally experience what it is like to get a tattoo and then what it is like to get it removed. Dr. Kaplan strongly believes in the benefits of laser tattoo removal and in the technology behind it. He has volunteered to go through the process himself in order to demonstrate how it works for others. Each step is being recorded on video for this purpose.

In addition to the planned laser treatment of the tattoo, Dr. Kaplan is doing something unorthodox. He is using Wrecking Balm tattoo removal cream prior to the tattoo healing completely. Only half the tattoo is being treated this way and the other half is left as a control side. We will see if using a topical lotion to try to get some ink out before it sets is useful. This is not a procedure that Wrecking Balm recommends but seemed to Dr. Kaplan like something worth trying since he knew he wanted to remove the tattoo immediately.

Check back with this blog for updates on the progress of Dr. Kaplan’s tattoo removal.

Tattoo regret may set in sooner for some people than for others.  Typically, someone may get a tattoo that is different from what they wanted or expected.  It might be the wrong color, shape, or design, or may contain a mistake, such as a misspelling.

At Tattoo MD, we often get inquiries about what can be done with a brand-new tattoo that is not quite healed yet.  This is a challenging problem since laser tattoo removal is not designed to be used on unhealed tattoos.  What benefit, if any, lasers would provide if used right away on a tattoo is unknown.

There is a lot of advice on the internet on what can be done for a new tattoo.   Some suggest to pick off the scab and pour peroxide in the wound on a frequent basis.  Others recommend the application of salts or creams before the tattoo heals completely. What all these methods have in common is to keep the skin from healing completely over the ink so that as much of the ink as possible will leak out during that time.

This may be somewhat effective.  A tattoo might become lighter or moth-eaten.  However, there is also a risk of causing an infection.  Already, with the placement of a tattoo, there is a foreign body in the wound.  As long as clean technique was used in tattooing, there is a low chance of infection.  If one starts to disturb the tattoo frequently and interferes in the healing process, though, there is a chance of causing an infection.  An infected tattoo can be quite a severe problem and requires treatment with a prolonged course of antibiotics, at the very least.  The potential for scarring may also increase with picking at the wound and the use of destructive solutions, such as peroxide.
In the end, although there may be some benefit in trying to mechanically leach the ink out of an unwanted new tattoo, there is also substantial risk.   No matter how successful this is, additional tattoo removal treatments, e.g. with a laser, will almost always be required.  At Tattoo MD, we recommend allowing a new tattoo to heal for at least 2 weeks prior to beginning laser treatment.

An article titled, “Motivation for Contemporary Tattoo Removal; A Shift in Identity” was released in the  July, 2008 issue of the Archives of Dermatology.  The study surveyed 196 tattooed patients presenting for laser tattoo removal from 2005-2006.  Comparison was made to a similar survey in 1996.

The study made several interesting observations.  It noted that the study subjects had more tattoos than in the 1996 survey (2.8 vs. 2.0) and were older when they presented for tattoo removal.  The mean waiting time for removal also shortened from 14 to 10 years.

In the first study, men outnumbered women, but it was the other way around in 2006.  Women reported more feelings of social stigma and negative comments associated with the tattoo as well as much higher reports of “hiding the tattoo” as a reason for removal.  Women in the study were also pierced more often than men (70% vs. 33%).

The survey appears to reflect general observations that can be made about changes in our society.  It seems that increased risk-taking behavior, such as tattooing, especially when it conflicts with societal expectations of one’s gender is more harshly punished in women than in men.  This may be reflected by the greater number of women getting tattoos and likewise greater number changing their minds later and wanting them removed.