Tattoo Removing – How to Remove Tattoos and Tattoo Cover Up Ideas

My best friend had a large tattoo done on his upper arm of the word ‘Korn’ about ten years ago, for those of you who don’t know what Korn is/are, Korn are an American rock band, and for 6 months or so they were the biggest thing in his life.

Korn however as a band and important part of his life turned out to be a very temporary infatuation, and since almost as soon as the tattoo had healed, he has been trying to find the best way to remove it.

Before considering the idea of tattoo removal my friend decided to go the route of the tattoo cover up or transformation, his tattoo was in a fairly well hidden place so despite his dislike for the tattoo it wasn’t important that he have it removed for work reasons, etc. it was just that he no longer liked this tattoo itself.

Luckily for him the tattoo in question was fairly simple in design and more importantly it was plain black in coloration, this would make it far easier to cover up the tattoo with another design and transform it entirely.

So the obvious answer to him was to transform the unwanted band logo tattoo into something a little more stylish, by going the way of the tribal tattoo. Modern tribal tattoos have their roots in the tribal designs worn by numerous tribal cultures such as those worn by the Maori of New Zealand and Polynesian peoples and are usually formed of elaborate black patterns and images.

So this is what my friend did, after consulting with a local tattoo artist, taking a trace of his original tattoo and between them they were able to convert his original Korn tattoo into an elaborate tribal style tattoo that fairly successfully masked the original.

You could only make out the word Korn within his new tattoo if you already knew that it had been there, and were specifically looking for it. All in all it made for a pretty good tattoo cover up, and for a while this sufficed.

So like I was saying, for a while this tattoo cover-up worked well, ‘Korn’ was no longer easily visible on his arm, and for a while he was happy with it. But recently his dislike for this tattoo in it’s entirety has returned, and he has been researching methods through which to get his tattoo removed completely.

But how do you get a tattoo removed?

There are several popular and varied methods of tattoo removal available today to those with unwanted tattoos. Each of which varies in cost and effectiveness, the most popular methods of tattoo removal currently are:

• Tattoo Removal Creams.
• Lazer Removal
• IPL - Intense Pulsed Light Therapy

Tattoo removing creams are often marketed as ‘the only proven method of removing a tattoo without surgery’. However a little research via the internet turns up a mixed bag of results and opinions regarding the effectiveness of tattoo removal cream as a form of successful tattoo removal.

Skeptical and rightly so those seeking a successful method of tattoo removal have left their mark spread wide across the internet in the form of this commonly asked question ‘Do tattoo removal creams work?’

There are those who claim to have had excellent results using tattoo removing creams, but these are far outweighed by the percentage of those who claim the tattoo removing creams to have been ineffective.

Well not entirely ineffective, it appears that the most commonly experienced effect of using tattoo removing creams is the fading of the tattoo, with some people experiencing more fading than others, but whichever way you look at it, tattoo fading does not equal tattoo removal.

The most commonly used method for successful tattoo removal used these days is laser tattoo removal, the process of laser tattoo removal involves using a laser to target the ink beneath the skin and break it down into fragments. These laser fragmented ink particles can then be safely absorbed and cleared by the bodies own immune system.

Laser tattoo removal is not a cheap treatment, for the tattoo to be completely removed you will usually have to undergo multiple sessions and having to undergo as many as ten laser tattoo removal sessions to achieve satisfactory results is not unheard of, and each individual session can cost as much as $800. Depending upon the size, location and colour scheme of the tattoo in question having a tattoo removed by laser surgery can cost many thousands of dollars.

But despite this cost, laser tattoo removal is probably the most tried, tested and effective method of tattoo removal available, so should you absolutely need your tattoo gone, laser tattoo removal may well be the option for you.

IPL tattoo removal is the new kid on the block with regards to recommended methods of tattoo removal. IPL tattoo removal is the process of using high intensity pulses of light that are able to penetrate the skin and remove colored or abnormal cells from within the body.

IPL whilst similar to laser tattoo removal in many respects utilises a different form of light and specifically placed prisms to target the tattoo ink within the body itself, and as with laser tattoo removal the IPL tattoo removal breaks down the ink pigments which are then absorbed and diffused by the bodies own systems.

Successful tattoo removal using the IPL process usually takes 3 or more sessions again depending upon the size and coloration of the tattoo in question, with darker tattoos requiring more sessions than lighter tattoos. And currently IPL tattoo removal is the most expensive of the three options listed above.

The benefits of IPL tattoo removal over laser tattoo removal is that it is said to hurt less than laser removal and is more effective per session, resulting in less sessions required than with laser tattoo removal.