Whenever I am in a discotheque, I bump on a dozen girls flaunting intricate tattoo designs on their bare back and each time I get tempted to follow their footsteps.
But each time I am discouraged by the thought that they will become a permanent feature of my body and if someday I get bored of them, I will not be able to remove them.
But, recently I have come to know, that I was wrong in assuming that tattoos can not be removed.
Yes, of course there was a time when tattoos used to be unalterable ornamentation over one’s body.
But today there are several effective cosmetic procedures to get rid of the tattoos that cease to excite you.
Apart from the aesthetic reasons, there are several other reasons why the patients desperately want to get freed from the tattoos they no longer appreciate.
Physical discomforts in forms of allergic reactions are one of these reasons which may start to haunt the person even many years after the application.
There are also socio-cultural reasons why some patients want to remove the tress of their tattoos.
Tattoos are made by injecting colored ink into the skin which culminates into a permanent graffiti on your body.
Sometimes they are small, sometimes they are extremely elaborate. While many people bear the tattoo mark throughout their lifetime, there are many who for several reasons quickly get over their obsession with illustrations on their body and want to get back their normal skin.
Now, the basic thing about a tattoo removal process is that it has to be customized for each case of removal for the simple reason that each tattoo is created unique.
The tattoos if applied by a skilled and experienced tattoo painter, target the deeper layers of the skin and it is uniform in its penetration.
Because of this uniformity, the surgeons are able to remove a wide area of painted skin with the equal depth.
On the other hand, an unprofessional application of tattoos is difficult to remove as they have been applied unevenly.
In these cases, deeper shades of blue and black are extremely difficult to remove, while in case of professional tattoo making the newer inks and pastel colors can not be removed entirely.
With the amazing development in the field of cosmetic surgery, the tattoo removal procedure has emerged as one of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures.
If you are already bored with your tattoos and considering their banishment from your body, you should be well informed about the expected result and limitations of the procedure and surgical options available for removal of the tattoos.
If you are a prospective candidate of tattoo removal, know about the different techniques used to remove tattoos.
Tattoos removal surgery is an outpatient operation generally performed under local anesthesia by a dermatologic surgeon.
The most popular techniques are as follows:
Excision:
In cases where tattoo is too deep, but small in size, the surgeon removes the skin containing the ink with the help of scalpel and the edges are stitched up to close the wound.
This process helps the surgeon to gain greater control over inked areas.
This procedure is generally conducted on the areas where the ink has penetrated too deeper for the laser to get access.
Dermabrasion:
This is a process of scraping of the skin over the area of skin with tattoo.
In this process the surface as well as the middle layers of the skin are removed. This surgery combines both surgical and dressing techniques where the inks get absorbed.
Laser:
By far laser therapy seems to be the most popular technique for tattoo removal. A high-intensity laser beam is applied on the skin with tattoos to break up the tattoo ink pigments inside the layers of the skin.
The types of laser vary with the pigments in the tattoo ink.
Salabrasion:
It is the oldest method of tattoo removal where the ink is removed by vigorously rubbing the area with salt or a salt sanding block.
Result
As with other cosmetic surgery, the result of the operation grossly varies with individual patient. While in most of the cases it yield a dramatic result with no trace of ink remaining, in some cases little shade may be left in the skin.
The result also varies with the kind of procedure involved. You have to discuss with your surgeon to know which of the tattoo removal technique is most suitable for you.
