A vast cover-up: Tattoos not as permanent as they used to be

Kirk Baird

Monday, Sept. 24, 2001 | 8:22 a.m.

You have met someone who you know you are destined to spend the rest of your life with. So why be embarrassed? Let the whole world know you are in love by having the name of your significant other permanently tattooed on your body.

Then again, what if it doesn't work out? What if Mr. or Ms. Right turns out to be, "I can't believe I dated that loser." Now you're permanently stuck with a tattooed reminder of that failed relationship.

Not necessarily.

Tattoo removal has always been an option from excising the art from the body with a knife to treating the skin with burning acid.

The problem with these methods, however, has been the varied results and damage often done to the surrounding tissue, said Dr. Stephen Weiland, a Las Vegas plastic surgeon who has been removing tattoos since beginning his practice 11 years ago.

Weiland said dermabrasion, where the skin is literally sanded down to below the ink, causes more harm than good.

"Most tattoos are deep in the skin, so it would leave you with a scar that was more noticeable and less acceptable than the tattoo," he said.

In light of a recently developed tattoo removal technique involving lasers, which was developed by Maryland dermatologist Dr. Steven Snyder, the methods of slicing, burning and grating tattoos away resemble something from the Stone Age.

Snyder's process for removing unwanted ink from the body is simple: A laser tuned to a specific color frequency of light say, yellow is traced over a tattoo.

As the laser goes over the artwork, the yellow pigment in the tattoo reacts to the heat from the laser and begins to "break up," in much the same way a large asteroid is broken into smaller rocks.

The method is repeated for all colors of the tattoo. Once the ink is reduced to smaller pieces, the white blood cells can help the body digest and erase the design.

Over the course of months the tattoo blurs, fades, and, in most cases, eventually disappears (though some traces of the tattoo might remain).

Five years ago DeAndre Vilbert, 22, had his girlfriend's name (Michelle), tattooed on his back by a friend. Unfortunately the tattoo was slanted, so Vilbert -- with the blessing of his girlfriend -- had it removed with lasers three years ago.

Taking off his shirt, he proudly pointed to the spot on his back where the six-inch black tattoo once appeared. There is virtually no trace of it.

"There's no scarring. It's perfect," Vilbert said.

Angelo Lagasca had similar success removing his tattoos as well.

The 17-year-old Valley High School student had three tattoos -- one on each wrist and one on his right forearm. Lagasca said he got the tattoos from friends when he was 15. Recently, though, he began to wonder how the tattoos would affect his efforts to find employment -- if not now, certainly later.

So Lagasca has had the two tattoos on his wrist completely removed with lasers, and the tattoo on his forearm is hardly noticeable.

"I told other friends I had these tattoos and they didn't believe me," he said proudly.

Dr. Julio Garcia, a Las Vegas cosmetic surgeon who removed Vilbert and Lagasca's tattoos, is not surprised by the results of the procedure.

"If (laser removal) is done right, properly and slowly, a tattoo can disappear completely," Garcia said.

For better results, though, he said it requires more sessions.

On average, Garcia said it takes five 15-minute treatments to thoroughly remove a tattoo. But the bigger and more colorful the tattoo, the more time required under the laser.

"Some guys with complete (tattooed) sleeves and on their chests, it takes 15 to 20 times," he said. Even then there's no guarantee as to how successful the tattoo removal process will be.

With each session ranging anywhere from $75 to $500, having a tattoo removed can be considerably more costly than having it applied.

When Nathan Watson, 25, looked into having a wrist tattoo removed, he was told it could cost up to $10,000 to have it erased from his skin.

Eventually he found a doctor who performed the procedure for considerably less money, but Watson quit the treatment after enduring two "very painful" sessions that were "worse than getting the tattoo itself."

The effects of the procedures weren't much better, Watson said, with his skin blistering and bubbling for weeks following each treatment, which led to scarring.

Although Watson eventually had the original tattoo covered up with another one, he said the scars from the laser tattoo removal treatments remain visible.

"The laser surgery made it so I can never hide (the original tattoo) completely," he said.

Diana Lopez, 27, had a palm-sized tattoo of the Aztec calendar put on her lower back nine years ago. She said she was never happy with the work, which began "looking old and blurry, like a sailor's tattoo."

After visiting various Las Vegas tattoo parlors to discuss methods of covering her calendar tattoo, Lopez turned to Dirk Vermin, co-owner of Pussykat Tattoo in Las Vegas.

Vermin researched the Aztec civilization and incorporated many of those elements -- such as the heads of two Aztec gods -- into the cover-up art.

"The work (Vermin) did was great," Lopez said. "He was able to blend everything together to make it a great custom piece."

Ultimately, the price of the cover-up equaled about what it would cost for a new tattoo -- $250 -- but it was still less expensive than laser removal.

Johnny Gragg also prefers cover-ups to removals. A tattoo artist at Diversity on South Decatur Boulevard and Meadows Lane, Gragg said at least once a day someone who wants to have a "shoddy" tattoo removed comes into the business. But he often tries to talk them into having it covered up.

"(The doctors) say it takes at least five sessions to remove a tattoo," Gragg said. "It shouldn't take that long. It should be done in only one session."

Still, most agree it's best not to get into the situation where a tattoo needs to be either covered up or removed. The way to do that is to avoid getting a tattoo until you know what you want.

"If you're not sure, or you're having second thoughts about getting a tattoo, give yourself a month," Vermin said. "Don't be in a hurry."