The Sunday News
GETTING your butt, arm, back or chest tattooed with a lover’s name or an animal picture is a decision that some people are regrettably living with because there are fewer choices to make as technology has not been too generous to make it easy to remove the tattoo especially in Zimbabwe.
And to those that have the technology, the process is said to be costly and painful. As a result people with tattoos are forced to live with them because there are fewer options to reverse them.
It is therefore wise for young people to research before committing themselves to this form of body art as some of the animal pictures will also dent their chances of getting into the employ of armed forces.
As people mature, some tend to realise that getting a picture of an animal or someone’s name across their arm or chest really isn’t worth it, leaving them yearning to remove that “blemish”.
Tattoos are a form of body modification, made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment.
Not only do people get tatted up because of infatuation but for a whole lot of other reasons.
A snap survey conducted by Sunday Leisure, revealed that a number of young Zimbabweans have at least one tattoo and a lot of them are apparently regrettable. Tattoos in their nature, once drawn, are at once irremovable, leaving people with no option but to live with whatever they had inscribed on their skin for the rest of their lives.
Today, because of advancements in technology, tattoos can now be removed.
A middle-aged lady, who spots a tattoo on her upper right shoulder, who spoke to Sunday Leisure, on condition of anonymity, said she regretted ever getting it.
“This was one of the worst decisions of my life. Now when I wear sleeveless tops people give me weird stares and pass cynical comments. I am aware that there are techniques that can be used to remove tattoos nowadays but I do understand they are extremely painful and hellishly expensive. Getting a tattoo really isn’t worth all the pain and money it requires to get it removed,” she said.
Tattoo removal has been performed with various tools during the history of tattooing. While tattoos were once considered permanent, it is now possible to remove them with treatments, fully or partially.
According to reports before the development of laser tattoo removal methods, common techniques included, TCA (Trichloroacetic acid, an acid that removes the top layers of skin, reaching as deep as the layer in which the tattoo ink resides), salabrasion (scrubbing the skin with salt), cryosurgery and excision which is sometimes still used along with skin grafts for larger tattoos.
Some early forms of tattoo removal included the injection or application of wine, lime, garlic or pigeon excrement.
Today, “laser tattoo removal” usually refers to the non-invasive removal of tattoo pigments using Q-switched lasers. Typically, black and dark-coloured inks can be removed more completely.
A local tattoo artist, Albany Chitate, said many people who had tattoos they regretted approached him for modification or for him to use non-professional methods to “at least leave it looking like a blemish.”
“In developed countries there are broader options of how to remove tattoos, such as skin graft, plastic surgery and laser treatments. Many people here use some of the weirdest methods to remove tattoos such as using condensed milk in the place of ink. The condensed milk has to be drawn onto the skin at least three times to get rid of the ink. It is, however, painful. Others choose to shade the tattoos,” he said.
Albany also mentioned that Zimbabwe had just begun providing laser treatment for tattoo removals but at a cost.
“One lady came to me and asked me to remove her tattoo and I told her it was impossible. Later I learnt that she found a doctor at the Medical Centre, who could remove her tattoo using laser treatment. She, however, told me that it cost her an arm and a leg to remove it, as each session costs $1 000 and she went for three sessions,” said Albany.
Efforts to seek a comment from the doctor said to possess the laser equipment to remove tattoos, were fruitless, as he was said to be on leave and out of the country.
Another tattoo artist, Rowland Ruffini, said technologically advanced methods of tattoo removals were not prominent in Zimbabwe but in foreign countries.
“I haven’t come across anyone that has told me that they underwent laser treatment in Zimbabwe. Maybe in beauty salons but I highly doubt it. Laser treatment is very costly as you don’t undergo a single session. The people that have come to me normally want to cover up old tattoos or just to modify their tattoos. Mostly it’s the youngsters who would have been messing around and regret getting the tattoos,” he said.
In another interview with the uniformed forces, an officer who declined to be named said that aspiring officers shouldn’t have any blemish on their skins.
“It isn’t much of a big deal but of course to maintain professionalism and project a good image to the people we don’t expect recruits to come with tattoos. Obviously we can’t have officers looking like hooligans yet enforcing the law. People would undoubtedly undermine them,” she said.
