body

YOUR LOOK

By Dr. Ronald Bergman

Lifetime
of REGRET
For some, tattoos are a form of art,
but for others they are a reminder
of a costly career mistake

We all have regrets. But in pageants, and fashion modeling, a tattoo can be a glaringly distract- ing regret when it comes to your confidence and appearance.

Tattoos, if carried out on a whim or for the wrong reasons, can result in “ink regret.” This is quite common and seen in my practice every day. Even the most meaningful tattoos can become ca-reer-limiting in a competitive industry such as modeling. According to a 2008 Harris poll, 14 percent of all Americans have at least one tattoo, and 17 percent of those experience regret. So how do we get rid of them?

It’s important to realize that removing the tattoo will be more expensive and painful than the original “inking” process. Also, darker colors are more completely removed than lighter or brighter colors—a fact that doesn’t make sense to most patients. There are three main categories of removal options: Masking, topical substances and laser treatment.

MASKING

To “mask” a tattoo, you can either: a) use makeup; or b) cover one tattoo with another.

Several products are available for makeup-style concealment. This is often sufficient for most tattoos if cover-up is only required for a short time such as a runway show, photo shoot or pageant. Covering one tattoo with a new one requires planning with your tattoo artist, and the new tattoo must be darker in color. The old ink will require some form of removal process to first lighten the area in order to cover the unwanted tattoo effectively.

TOPICAL SUBSTANCES

Common topical kits will include a cream or gel, as well as an exfoliator and moisturizer (tip: exfoliators and moisturizers are available separately at the drug store for significantly less). Most topicals take a long time—some up to a year—to fade the tattoo.

While expensive, these topicals are cheaper than lasers and are not painful. Do not use products that contain TCA (trichloroacetic acid) unless you have spoken to your plastic surgeon. These are cream versions of a chemical peel and can cause significant scarring or pigmentation changes when not used properly.

A slightly more invasive topical technique includes mixing saline with a gel and actually tattooing it into the area. The gel binds to the ink molecules and brings them to the surface, forming a scab that falls off as the area heals. This process is repeated 3-5 times over 4-6 weeks until the ink is gone. The risk of scarring and skin discoloration from this process is the same as for laser treatments.