When love leaves its mark

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When love leaves its mark
December 19, 2010
Beverley Hadgraft
Herald Sun

TATTOOING can be the ultimate expression of love, but what happens when the affair's over? Modern laser removal is helping broken hearts heal faster

People do silly things when they're in love. They stop eating, buy anything heart-shaped and identify with cheesy ballads. Oh, and they have their loved one's name tattooed on their body.

Problem is, not all relationships are durable. Most of the collateral damage from a break-up can easily be fixed: you can put the weight back on, take the heart-shaped presents to St Vinnies and stop singing 'The Power of Love' when in company. Tattoos, however, are more of a problem.

Those who specialise in their removal, such as the Victorian Cosmetic Institute, estimate that 50 per cent of people who have tattoos regret them. Of course, that's not only because of relationship break-ups. Sometimes it's more a case that they've fallen out of love with the artwork or the social circle that prompted them. Understandably, life may take a direction in which it's no longer appropriate to have 'hate' inked across your knuckles.



That was the case for Mick Ireland. Forty years ago, he was a bikie. On booze-fuelled evenings, it was common to get together with mates, some needles and a bottle of India ink.

"I had a swallow tattooed between my thumb and forefinger, the words 'love' and 'hate' on my fingers and 'Death before Dishonour' on my arm," he says. The art marked him as a bikie and, at the time, that was exactly what he wanted. Fast-forward 20 years and he wasn't as keen.

"I was part of a different social circle, and moving into architectural design," recalls the 60-year-old father from the NSW Central Coast. "I'd be talking to millionaires about building their homes and see their eyes drop to my hands. My tattoos identified me as being from a certain demographic. I didn't want that, and eventually had them all lasered off. When they were gone, I felt as if I'd stepped up the ladder."

Ireland's situation is all too familiar to Jenny Roache and Jaydee McCormack, who run Hellbound Tattoos in Seaford, Victoria.

Two years ago, they bought a laser machine so they could also offer tattoo removal.

"The removal side has gone crazy," says McCormack, before reeling off reasons their customers get rid of their designs. "We remove a lot of home tattoos. You can buy tattoo guns on the internet and sometimes people make a mess of each other after a few drinks. One client let his 18-year-old girlfriend tattoo his arm - the result was atrocious. Other times, we remove words that have been spelt wrong."

She estimates about 40 per cent of tattoo removals are due to a change in circumstances, including relationship break-ups. "Lots of people want an ex's name removed," McCormack continues. "One guy came in with his current partner and she stood there, arms folded, wanting it off then and there. But you can't do it in one go; you have to wait weeks between sessions to give skin time to heal. It can take up to a year to remove one completely."

Her saddest case was the man who wanted his son's name removed: "He'd split up with his partner and she'd told him it wasn't his child."

It would have been a painful process in every sense but, focusing on the physical sensation, the consensus is that removal is a lot more painful than getting inked in the first place.

"It's like being flicked very hard and fast by a rubber band," says McCormack. "Some people blister and bruise. It's a big commitment."

Still, it's a much easier process than it used to be. Methods of old included skin grafts or dermabrasion, which involved removing the top layers of skin. Today, most removals are done using Q-switched lasers.

The laser beam shatters the ink much like a hammer smashing a glass panel. Once it's broken down into small pieces, the body can flush the foreign particles away.

Treatments don't take long - an area the size of a matchbox takes about two minutes - due to the speed of the laser pulses. However, each tattoo usually needs several treatments.

Does the fact removal is simpler, cheaper and causes less scarring mean people make the decision to have tattoos more lightly? "Oh, yes," says McCormack. "We're such a disposable society; if it's crap, people can get rid of it.

"Tattoos are a fashion accessory now and, as with fashion, designs go in and out of vogue. There was an '80s fad for castles and wizards, and there's a lot of black tribal artwork people are having removed."

Mistakes and broken relationships aren't the only reasons for enduring the pain and expense of tattoo removal. Despite body art now being ho-humly common, and often quite beautiful, judgmental attitudes from 'cleanskins' can also grind down tattoo wearers.

Steven Sharpe, director of Tattooink TV, agrees tattoo discrimination is still rife. When he tried to stage a Miss Tattoo Australia contest in Coogee, NSW, for instance, he was told it wasn't the event or people the middle-class seaside suburb wanted to attract.

Tattoos can also cause problems at work, he adds, citing the example of a young woman who went to work with her hair up, revealing a tattoo on her neck, and was sacked. "There's still a mentality that tattoos are bikie-related, yet one of the fastest growing demographics for getting tattoos is women over 35," he says.

Sasha Brandt, 20, has seven tattoos on her body, but is currently having a small skull removed from her hand. "People stare at it," she says. "I love the artistry of my tattoos, but I don't like people's attitudes. I get on a bus and even the driver is stand-offish to me."

Commercial diver, Sean Croll, 41, feels the same way. He had his chest, back and bicep tattooed when he was in his early 20s. At the time, they fitted in with a diver's tough image. Now, he dislikes them - as does his partner, Penny Camplisson. "At the beach, he doesn't like walking around without a top," she says, "because of people's preconceived impressions."

Croll has spent three years and thousands of dollars having his tats removed, and the job won't be finished until next year. "But it'll be worth it," says Camplisson. "The tattoos make him look like someone he's not."

Robert Fam has been removing tattoos at his clinic, New Image Skin Revision & Laser in Paramatta, NSW, for four years and sees an average of 20 clients a week. "We treat a broad range of people - all ages, women and men," he says. "The young ones have usually made a quick decision, then realised it was a mistake. A lot of people who've had children don't want the kids to look at them in a particular way. Women, especially, with tattoos on their necks or breast lines, can be very self-conscious."

Among his clients is Donna Bell, 42. Her tattoos were the result of years of contemplation, but she didn't take into account how her skin would change over time. She also has psoriasis, which results in rapid skin growth. The end-product was distorted artwork. "People need to decide if they really want one, research the design, consider their skin type, sit on it for two years and only then go ahead," she advises.

Megan Blandford, 29, agrees. She had a star tattooed on her ankle on her 18th birthday. After a short period being proud of doing something so spur-of-the-moment, she soon regretted it. Having her first child was the final catalyst.

"I thought, it's time for that to go now," she says.

Her tattoo took only 30 minutes and cost $50. Removing it involved 12 treatments, a two-hour round trip for each visit and a total bill of $1320.

Perhaps it would be much less painful and expensive to change your life to fit in with the tattoo. Cricketer Michael Slater thought so, after he had '356' tattooed, believing he was the 356th Australian Test representative. When he found out he was actually the 357th, he asked Cricket Australia to approve a swap with the real 356th Test player, Brendon Julian. Amazingly, they agreed.

Sadly, it may not be as simple persuading your new partner to change their name to that of your ex.