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When ink stinks

Regrets, we have a few, especially our tattoos.

By John Elder

In 2009, Kimberley Vlaeminck, then 18, made headlines around the world by claiming that a tattoo artist had inked her face with 56 stars while she slept.

Ms Vlaeminck, a Belgian, said she’d asked for three stars only – but a language mix-up, and her astonishing ability to sleep while her face was needled for hours, resulted in a galaxy taking root on the left side of her face.

She demanded that the tattooist Rouslan Toumaniantz – whose own face and throat are heavily inked – pay up to have the stars removed.

He actually agreed to pay half – amounting to thousands of dollars – even though Ms Vlaminck was telling lies.

Ms Vlaeminck was a star attraction for news outlets in 2009. Photo: Getty.
Ms Vlaeminck was a star attraction for news outlets in 2009. Photo: Getty.

Ms Vlaeminck made a wild claim that tattooist Rouslan Toumaniantz had covered her face in stars while she slept. Photo: Getty
Ms Vlaeminck made a wild claim that tattooist Rouslan Toumaniantz had covered her face in stars while she slept. Photo: Getty.

After a week of making news, she confessed that she’d asked for those 56 stars – and was happy with them, until her father threw a fit.

“I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and that the tattooist had made a mistake,” Ms Vlaeminck told Dutch TV.

In 2013, Ms Vlaeminck and Mr Toumaniantz were back in the news.

He was caught up in a new controversy – after signing his name in giant letters across his girlfriend’s face less than 24 hours after they met.

On a happier note, Ms Vlaeminck revealed she had those stars removed.

The curse of the 18th birthday tattoo

When-ink-stinks_ Tattoo-regrets-deliver-boon-for-removalists._Page_1_Image_0019

It’s tempting to think badly of Ms Vlaeminck, when really she’s just one more kid who thought a tattoo was a great idea… and then not.

One in five Australians has a tattoo, according to a 2018 report from McCrindle Research.

Of those, more than half (51 per cent) received their first tattoo between the ages of 18 and 25.

“Many life-markers have disappeared from Australia’s lives – from christenings, first Communions and marriages, to first paycheques and moving out of home,” McCrindle observed.

“This has created a yearning to symbolise the chapters of life with new markers, and tattoos are part of the new symbolism.”

But it’s also created a perpetual wave of regret – and a business opportunity.

Since the beginning of last year, an American company, Removery, has opened eight clinics – in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland – and seems intent on taking over the Australian market.

New research commissioned by Removery, and conducted by YouGov, investigated the attitudes of 1544 tattooed adults. The survey found that one in three people want a tattoo removed.

The most popular reasons being: Personal style had changed (37 per cent), or the tattoo was attached to a bad memory (32 per cent).

Hilary Quinn, a pioneer on the Australian scene. Photo: Melbourne Tattoo Removal
Hilary Quinn, a pioneer on the Australian scene. Photo: Melbourne Tattoo Removal.

If Australia has a guru of tattoo removal, it would be Melbourne- based Hilary Quinn. When CHOICE looked at the hazards of tattoo removal in 2016 – including misleading pricing and scarring at the hands of poorly trained technicians – Ms Quinn was featured as the reliable expert.

“The most persistent statistic related to tattoo removal is that the tattoo being removed was applied at 18 (to 21),” she said.

“It’s a modern-day right of passage to get a tattoo at 18, as soon as it’s legal to do so.”

Before removal treatment began (above) and after (below). There needs to be an eight-week pause between treatments, so the lymph system can remove the broken-up ink particles. Complete removal can take two years or more. Photos: Melbourne Tattoo Removal
Before removal treatment began (above) and after (below). There needs to be an eight-week pause between treatments, so the lymph system can remove the broken-up ink particles. Complete removal can take two years or more. Photos: Melbourne Tattoo Removal.
Before removal treatment began (above) and after (below). There needs to be an eight-week pause between treatments, so the lymph system can remove the broken-up ink particles. Complete removal can take two years or more. Photos: Melbourne Tattoo Removal

Ms Quinn said that “12 was often the age that tattoo ideation begins in young people, and so they have waited what seems like an age before they can get their first tattoo – and many book in for their first tattoo literally on their 18th birthday”.

Unfortunately, “what appeals at this age rarely lasts”.

A common problem with young people getting their first tattoo is “they often want to get it in a highly visible position, but later realise that the spot is too visible and that it draws unwanted comment and attention”.

Ms Quinn said it was “an especially toxic combination to have a tattoo that is both unwanted and on a high profile area”.

Being asked about an unwanted tattoo “is so uncomfortable that many choose to keep them covered at all times”.

Twenty years of faded rebellion

When Nicky Winter turned 18, she decided to get a tattoo and just about any tattoo would do.

Her motivation was a common one: Ms Winter knew her parents would hate it, and she wanted to experience all the things she’d not been allowed to do.

“And getting a tattoo was one of them,” she said.

“I knew my parents wouldn’t be happy about it and that’s why it seemed the ultimate way to rebel.”

Ms Winter went with a friend, Brooke, to a local tattoo shop in Knox, Victoria. Between them, they didn’t think what it meant for their bodies to be inked forever.

In fact, they hadn’t thought about what kind of tattoo they wanted.

“I gave no thought to the actual design of the tattoo whatsoever,” said Ms Winter.

‘Tribal’ tattoos were popular then, “and that suited my frame of mind”.

That was 20 years ago.

“It was before anyone had used the phrase ‘tramp stamp’, so I chose to have it on my lower back because it was cool, but also to hide it from my parents – my dad in particular,” she said.

‘I can’t hide it from my son’

Over time, the regret set in, but there was no pressing reason to have the tattoo removed. It was easy to hide – until Nicky Winter, sober businesswoman halfway through her 30s, became a mother to a curious boy.

“Not many people have even seen it. But I can’t hide it from my son,” she said.

“He’s three-and-a-half now and he’s so curious about everything. He asks me when the ‘texta’ is coming off. I don’t really know how to explain it to him.”

Although Ms Winter mindfully kept the tattoo covered up for 20 years, she now appears in a promotional video for Removery – see above – during which she undergoes her first picosecond laser treatment to remove the tribal stamp.

A picosecond is a trillionth of a second and this purportedly reduces discomfort. In the video, she says the treatment was “less painful; than getting a tattoo, by quite a lot.”

How painful was it?

Ms Winter said the “treatment felt like quick, deep flicks with a strong elastic band. The whole session only took about one to two minutes”.

When The New Daily spoke with Ms Winter, she’d undergone five treatments and wasn’t sure when the job would be completed.

“It’s taking longer than what I thought,” she said. “But the tattoo was all black, and black’s the hardest colour to remove. They said it would take eight to ten treatments, so I’m probably halfway there. Once it’s fully removed, I know I will feel so relieved.”

Photo: Melbourne Tattoo Removal
Photo: Melbourne Tattoo Removal.

The research commissioned by Removery found that 84 per cent of Australians who want to remove a tattoo believe the treatment “will make them feel ‘much more’ or ‘somewhat more’ positive about their body”.

The study also revealed that “men with a tattoo are three times more likely than women to say that embarrassment is preventing them from getting a tattoo removed”.

Why does it take so long?

According to Hilary Quinn, a laser beam works to remove a tattoo by shattering the ink into fine particles. These are then absorbed and expelled by the body’s lymphatic system.

It can’t all be done at once, but rather in layers.

For this to occur efficiently, there needs to be a significant pause between treatments, a minimum of eight weeks, she said.

Ms Quinn advised that these pauses “ensure that the immune system doesn’t become de-sensitised to the way treatment works”.

If a tattoo requires 12 treatments to be fully removed, that’s 96 weeks in total, almost two years.

This is a good thing from a financial point of view. Tattoo removal isn’t cheap.

Photo: Melbourne Tattoo Removal
Photo: Melbourne Tattoo Removal.

Ms Quinn said the average cost of removing a small tattoo is about
$1000. Larger tattoos can cost in the thousands but mercifully this cost is spread over time.

The cost of setting up business isn’t cheap, either.

Ms Quinn and other “old school” practitioners use what’s known as Q-switched machines: They cost between $150,000 and $300,000, and are routinely described as the ‘gold standard’ in the trade.

They break up the ink at a rate of nanoseconds, or a billionth of a second.
There’s an ongoing argument about which type of technology (picoseconds or nanoseconds) is most effective at clearing ink. See here.

The reasons why tattoos get removed

Hilary Quinn is in her 13th year as a tattoo removalist.

In 2008, she did a course in laser safety, then proceeded to experiment on “guinea pigs” for a couple of years.

There was no training for tattoo removal – and, at that time, there was barely a market.

“I was hanging out with some plastic surgeons back then, and they were maybe seeing one client a month,” she said.

Since then, tattoo removal has become a highly competitive business, and Ms Quinn has seen the trends come and go.

So, TND asked her to identity the main reasons why people get themselves lasered.

Tattooing was a stage they went through

examples “For most, tattooing is a stage they go through. I call it having ‘tattoo fever’ – when getting tattooed is exciting and supplies a dopamine hit. One tattoo isn’t enough.

“So people keep getting tattooed until they get one too many or until one turns out badly and the scales suddenly fall from their eyes and they want to remove all of their tattoos.

“This final tattoo is the tattoo that broke the camel’s back.

“There are older people who are going through a tattooing stage now, but they would have gone through it earlier if it had been more acceptable then.”

The tattoo isn’t exactly what the wearer wants

“Expectations are much higher now that tattoos have become mainstream fashion, and are no longer the ‘mark of the outsider’.

“Also, the art of tattooing has undergone a revolution which has seen the standard of tattooing improve considerably.

“These days, people expect to receive exactly what they are imagining they will get. There is often a disconnect here.

“In the past, the wearer would have just been happy to have a new tattoo, but the modern day tattoo patron can be disappointed by small differences between what they were expecting and what they received.

“I often talk these folks out of removal knowing that the initial disappointment is a form of shock: The anomaly might be the tattoo being a small distance from where the wearer desired it to be.”

Ex-partners names

“This is one of the more urgent removals. It’s not uncommon for commencing removal to be one of the first things folks do when they break up. I’ve taken calls from people who have just broken up and they want to book their first tattoo removal appointment.”

A lack of bonding

“Sometimes [they] haven’t [bonded] with the tattoo they have just had applied. These tattoos can be exactly what they had asked for, and for reasons that even they don’t understand they don’t want to keep the tattoo.

“The feelings associated with fresh unwanted ink are fierce. Most find it an intense and anxiety-invoking experience.

“During the first three days many people can’t sleep, eat very little and cry a lot. They’re in a form of shock. This might be a 55-year- old doctor or an 18-year-old girl. Tattoo shock is no respecter of persons.

“Many mornings the first call I receive is from someone in this state.

“They’ve made it through the night but find in the morning that the distress of the previous day hasn’t gone and that it’s time to enquire about tattoo removal. The thing they need at this time is reassurance that their tattoo can be removed.”

Some people just shouldn’t get a tattoo

“It’s not at all uncommon for a person to get their first tattoo and realise right away that they don’t want to be tattooed. Imagining having a tattoo and actually having a tattoo can be quite different for some. Once the tattoo has been applied things can get quite real quite fast. Many clients removing their first and only tattoo say things like ‘I don’t think I’m the tattooed type’.”

Poorly applied tattoos

“Often underage people allow their friends who aspire to becoming a tattooist to practice on them, in part because it’s a way to ‘get ink’ and also because it’s free.

“As they did during the ’70s, teenagers are again tattooing themselves using the ‘stick & poke’ method at the moment. This ‘craze’ comes and goes. Parents suffering different levels of distress bring their teenagers in for removal. Often these tattoos contain less ink than a professionally applied tattoo and so can be removed more easily. This craze is no respecter of socio-economic background.”

Getting married

“Brides and grooms remove tattoos, often applied in their youth, before their wedding day. Brides because they don’t want it to be seen when in their wedding dress. Grooms because getting married signifies moving on to a different, less reckless stage of life.”

Friendships don’t last

“Friendship tattoos are in vogue. Two often very young friends get the same tattoo or complementary tattoos. Friendships end and the tattoo becomes a painful reminder of why the friendship died, and of the ex-friend who is now disliked.”

Joke tattoos

“These are applied with mates, sometimes after losing a drinking game or other competition. They are often removed once the fun of the moment passes.”

Memorial tattoos

“Often the death of a grandparent is the first major loss a young adult has suffered and they will often have a memorial tattoo applied. Later when the trauma has passed, they come to the realisation that the tattoo is no longer a comforting memorial, but a painful reminder of loss.

“Being asked about a memorial tattoo can cause pain. It’s not uncommon at all for a family member to have the name of a close loved one removed for this reason.”

Face tattoos

“Face tattoos are the most quickly regretted of all tattoos. Many young people get a face tattoo thinking that it may cause them to be seen as cutting-edge and fashion-forward. This may be the case among their own social group. But very soon they find out that they are treated poorly by the public at large. This is not what they signed up for and it’s often not long before they regret their decision.

“Some of the young people attending the clinic suffer greater desperation to be rid of their tattoo. I often say that they ‘got their face tattoo in the morning and knew it was a mistake by the afternoon’.”

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