If an unwanted tattoo will clash with your dress, you have options.
Our ancient ancestors used tattoos to show off the accomplishments of great warriors. Some used them for spiritual reasons, believing that tattoos were a way ancestors could recognize clan members in the afterlife. Today, however, people get tattoos for a whole range of personal reasons, some profound and some much less so. Many are simple fashion statements made on a whim and not meaningful artwork for the wearer. For these people, the love of the tattoo fades, but the artwork is forever. For brides in particular, an unwanted tattoo can be a particular problem.
Covering an Unwanted Tattoo
The simplest option for many people is to cover the tattoo. They can use makeup products made just for this purpose, or consider having a more meaningful tattoo layered on top of the old one. Many tattoo artists specialize in this technique that requires advanced skills and real creativity.
Covering Takes Time
Placing a new design over an existing one takes care and caution. It’s not something that can rushed. If anything goes wrong in a cover-up, there are little options left. For most brides, that makes a coverup tattoo an unworkable option.
The new tattoo will cover a larger area, making it an unusable option if the existing tattoo is already large. You may also find that a cover up tattoo needs a little more maintenance. Some areas will need touching up so that aspects of the old tattoo do not shine through. While most tattoos can be resurrected into beautiful art, tattoos with excess dark ink or dramatic scarring may not work well in a cover-up design.
Another downside of cover up tattoos is that the layers of ink become even harder to remove if you decide to go with surgical options instead to remove the tattoo (read more about those later).
Removing an Unwanted Tattoo
Tattoos by design are permanent and difficult to remove. Most methods will scar, and not all tattoos will magically disappear. There are several methods available:
- Dermabrasion – Dermabrasion is a procedure that wears away layers of skin. It is painful, and although it does remove most of the tattoo, it tends to scar.
- Salabrasion – Salabrasion uses a salt solution to rub off layers of skin in to remove the color pigment of the tattoo. Like dermabrasion, it can be uncomfortable and will scar the skin.
- Surgery – Surgically removing tattoos is rather successful. A surgeon cuts out the tattooed part of skin and then stitches the surrounding area back together. Doctors prefer to use this technique for small tattoos as it does leave a rather large scar. Larger areas need a more specialized treatment where skin grafts replace the removed skin. As this is an elective surgery, it is expensive.
- Cryosurgery – Cryosurgery, or cryotherapy, is commonly used to treat other skin conditions such as warts and it has some success in removing tattoos. Using liquid nitrogen, cryosurgery works by freeze burning the tattooed area of skin. Because it leaves a scar, it’s best for very small tattoos.
- Laser Tattoo Removal – Most doctors prefer a laser removal technique called Q-switched, or quality-switched laser surgery. This treatment sends small pulses of the laser into the dye pigments, forcing them to break down into little particles that are easily absorbed by the body. A typical tattoo can take between five and twelve treatments to work. The process can take anywhere from six to twelve months to complete. This process is preferred because it is leaves less noticeable scarring.
However you decide to handle it, you don’t have to live with the regrets of an unwanted tattoo. If the tattoo will class with your wedding dress, do something about it.
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Jessica Bosari writes about different ways to manage tattoos for New Look Laser Tattoo Removal in Houston. Stop by if you decide it’s time to remove an unwanted tattoo.
