Think twice before you get that tattoo!

Getting inked is no big deal today, especially when it comes to declaring love for someone.


Ians January 04, 2011

NEW DEHLI: 25-year-old Prashant Kale inked his girlfriend’s name on his nape on impulse but regrets it now ever since he has broken off with her.

A tattoo cannot be completely removed. It can only be lightened by using laser technique or it can be camouflaged with more intricate designs.

As Rajesh Khurana, president of Timpac Healthcare puts it, “To make a tattoo, you invest INRs 2,000 but to remove it you have to pay more than INRs 20,000.” Timpac Healthcare is known for offering clinical obesity management, cosmetology, medical aesthetics, wellness, medi spas and anti-aging treatments.

Tattoos are quite popular among celebrities too. Stars like Deepika Padukone and Saif Ali Khan got the names of their partners tattooed. While Khan’s relationship is going strong, Padukone has already broken up with her once proclaimed love.

But Padukone, who inked her ex-boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor’s initials on her nape, doesn’t regret her decision and has no plans to remove it in the near future as it can be easily covered by her hair.

Khan got Kareena Kapoor’s name inked on his forearm.

In the case of Amrita Arora, her boyfriend Usman Afzal got her name inked on his arm but the couple later broke it off. And although no one knows what happened to the tattoo, Arora is happily married to Shakeel Ladakh now.

Delhi-based tattoo artiste Aditi Naithani of Devilz Tattooz says a lot of people come for cover-up tattoos and want to strike off the name of their ex.

“Out of 30 clients in a month, at least five come for a cover-up. In most cases, they have a break-up and in some cases it’s just a bad job done,” Naithani said.

“We try to use complicated and intricate designs to do the cover-up. Also, we use darker colours in the right manner. The most popular cover-up design used is of a dragon as it is so intricate,” she added.

The cost of covering up a tattoo by redoing it depends on its size.

Sometimes a tattoo design gets horribly wrong or one gets bored with it, and hence people want to remove or redo it.

“In most cases people either dislike what they had or else the tattoo does not match their expectations. Then they want to remove it immediately. The number of such people who had tattoos done recently but dislike it is rising,” Jalandhar-based skin surgeon Mohan Singh said.

“The incidence of people demanding tattoo removal is rising every year by double. More and more younger people desire to have tattoos while they are not that mentally matured to keep them,” he added.

A laser session requires a minimum of four to six sessions within a space of one to two months but it is not easy to completely remove the tattoo as it is deeply entrenched into  ones skin. One session generally costs around INRs 3,000.

Khurana points out that tattoos made with colours like green, blue, yellow and red are very difficult to get rid of, while black remains easier to get rid off.

“My advice is before anyone goes for one, think whether you are doing the right thing and going for the right design,” Khurana added.

So the next time you are tempted to get a tattoo, think twice!

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

Sameer | 13 years ago | Reply I have 2 tats and i love both of them, but i thought long and hard about what to get. Its not a decision one should make on a whim.
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