Some say college is the place where people make lifelong friends, party full-time, study part-time and eventually meet their soul mates.
But when Carla Nixon, a senior in engineering at Ohio State, thought she found true love, she decided to do what she now considers one of the biggest mistakes of her life: display a tattoo of her boyfriend’s name on her neck.
“It was stupid, but at the time it was OK,” Nixon said. “It didn’t hurt to put it on my neck like everybody thinks. But it’s not the best place for it.”
Nixon said she should have reconsidered getting the name on an obvious part of her body because, now separated from her former boyfriend, she is looking to have it removed.
Although Nixon is not the first person to receive a regrettable tattoo, she will certainly not be the last. Some people choose to get tattoos for cultural or symbolic reasons while others choose them for the aesthetic value.
In her article “The Science of Tattoos,” dermatologist Dr. Audrey Kunin said there are several things people should be aware of before getting a tattoo.
Tattooing, literally translated as “puncturing the skin,” involves repeatedly breaking the skin by needles to deposit pigments into the dermis – the non-shedding layer of skin beneath the epidermis. By leaving ink in this stable region, the lasting image of a tattoo is ensured because the body is incapable of removing the pigment naturally.
Matt Barnett, a tattoo artist of Evolved Body Art on High Street, said no one in the studio will tattoo the name of a significant other on a client for this reason.
“I’ve done it in the past but I had to cover it up about two weeks later,” Barnett said. He said a lot of people don’t understand that trying to remove or cover up a tattoo is much harder – and expensive – than it seems.
Although covering up a tattoo is one way to try and rid of a body’s permanent drawing, several other and more expensive methods are available.
According to the FDA, the common methods for removing a tattoo involve laser treatments, which can lighten tattoos; dermabrasion, which involves grating away layers of skins with a wire brush; and scarification, which removes the tattoo with an acid solution, surgery or both.
The Central Ohio Skin Laser Center is one of the locations in Columbus that specializes in laser tattoo removal. Carolyn Smialek, a registered nurse and co-operator of the Smialek practice, said a removal procedure can take anywhere from six months to one year.
“We use an Alexandrite laser system which creates a wavelength that gets under the skin,” Smialek said. By taking advantage of ink’s light-absorbing properties, the high-energy laser beams jostle the pigment’s particles enough to break them into smaller pieces and allow the immune system to expunge them. Once isolated, the ink fragments move into the bloodstream and then are excreted in bodily waste.
“Treatments are done four weeks apart to allow the skin to heal,” she said. “It can take anywhere from 10-to-15 treatments to remove the tattoo.”
Smialek said the amount of times required for the procedure depends on a person’s skin pigment and the colors used in their tattoo.
“It is harder for darker skin because the laser does not discriminate between natural pigment and ink pigment,” Smialek said. “Black ink is the easiest to remove. People usually think it’s the hardest.”
The most troublesome inks to remove are red and yellow ink, she said, because a different wavelength is required to energize the pigment and break it down.
Smialek said this type of tattoo removal procedure is one of the most effective procedures because it leaves less scar tissue. Just a consultation, however, can set the inked-and-regretful back by about $55.
For most, Smialek said tattoo removal “is kind of pay as you go.”
“The procedure can take up to a year but some people are not here for a year, especially college students,” Smialek said.
There are exceptions to the rule of laser tattoo removal. Smialek said if anyone has an allergic reaction to the tattoo ink, then they are not eligible for laser removal because it would only make matters worse. The problem occurs because breaking down the irritating pigments can put them in the blood stream, spreading the reaction to nearly every area of the body.
The color red is often associated with reactions and allergens because the dye consists primarily of mercury, an element toxic to the body that may cause eczema. This condition is identified by red, bumpy, itchy patches of skin located near a site of irritation and is difficult to treat.
But because black is made mostly from carbon, a building block of all living things, it rarely causes skin irritations. Risks do exist, however, because harmful materials can make their way into black tattoo ink. Logwood and black waterproof inks are two potentially problematic inks because they have charcoal particles, a material that might contain impurities and cause allergic reactions.
Kunin said people need to be aware of their artist’s sanitary procedures, pick a private location on their body and select a symbol they can live with for the rest of their lives.
Barnett said Evolved Body Art is one of the major tattoo locations in Columbus and they have strict sterilization guidelines to follow.
“We dispose of needles after each use and we only reuse tubes that get sterilized in a solution and autoclaved,” Barnett said. The autoclave process involves heating water vapor to temperatures beyond the boiling point under high pressure, destroying harmful bacteria and viruses.
He said they work with Ohio State University College of Dentistry to get a weekly score of their autoclave system. Further information about Evolved Body Art can be found on the Web site: www.evolvedbodyart.com.
