Life and death of tattoos: From studio ink to laser removal

The sun was setting outside The Canvas Tattoo Studio in Prior Lake. Jerome James of Prior Lake, owner and founder since 2005, was working. His needle buzzed softly as it swooped over the skin on his latest client’s calf. The tattoo, a little larger than a postcard, was going to be a rose with detailed, realistic shading.

“Lately you see a lot of roses and watercolor tattoos,” he said. That, and a lot of script, infinity loops and what he calls “Sailor Jerry stuff,” your classically stylized hearts, anchors and swallows.
Client requests change with the times. For a while, until about two years ago, James said it was all tribal tattoos.
Before that, it was Chinese characters and symbols.
The resurgence of Sailor Jerry tattoos, he said, are proof that history repeats itself.
But in spite of this, he said, some things about the tattoo industry have changed. Namely, a lot more people are tattooing, and a lot more people are getting tattooed. James seeing a lot of older customers than he used to, and in the summer, a swell of 18- to 25-year-olds.
This is a far cry from when he was younger. Back then, he said, having a tattoo made people assume you were part of a gang.
“I’d say one in every three or four people has a tattoo,” James said.
On the flip side
That’s no thanks to Mike Towey, a Spring Lake Township resident who does his work in Edina.
Towey does tattoo removal. His clients use medication to numb their skin, then Towey uses a laser to release the ink trapped in pockets within the skin cells. The whole process, for his shop, takes about eight treatments, and each of those can run at $100 to $150.
Towey has never had a tattoo himself.
“I’m too old,” he said with a smile. “And back when I wasn’t, having a tattoo wasn’t cool.”
If the “coolness” of having a tattoo has changed, Towey’s general clientele hasn’t — at least, not much. His customers are usually 20 to 32 years old, about to enter marriage or motherhood or a high-powered career, and tired or embarrassed of the tattoo they got when they were 18. A smattering of them are from Prior Lake and Shakopee.
Like James’ tattoo business, tattoo removal has been booming.
When Towey got into the business about 10 years ago, he said, nobody was doing it. His became one of the first tattoo removal clinics in the country, and since then he has seen business steadily increase.
The most common tattoos Towey sees these days are flowers and vines.
Towey suspects that the rise in tattoo removal may be directly related to the rise in tattooing, but there may be other contributing factors. Thanks to more efficient lasers and better numbing techniques, tattoo removal is much easier and much less painful than it used to be.
But there may also be a third reason, one he can relate to.
“You see it more and more,” he said. Thanks to stories about celebrities getting tattoos removed — Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, to name a few — tattoo removal has gotten some attention.
Thanks in large part to movie and TV stars, just as tattoos no longer carry the same affiliation with gangs, they also no longer have the reputation for permanency they used to.
“There are tattoo TV shows out there,” James said. “It becomes more of a household thing.”
Surprisingly, this isn’t something James says with total enthusiasm. On one hand, he enjoys the newfound appreciation tattooers have gotten as craftsmen. When tattooing isn’t just an emblem for thuggery or rebellion, artists can actually be treated as artists, with individual styles and pride in their craft.
That being said, he doesn’t enjoy people choosing tattoos without that sense of permanence — that sense of seriousness — in mind. Rather than base a decision off a personal aesthetic or a milestone, customers will go with the trends, from Chinese symbols to Sailor Jerry.
“People will say, ‘I want a tattoo, but I don’t know what to get,’” he said.
With that casual attitude, plus with the newfound relative ease of removal, it’s no wonder tattoos are on the rise for young people. More research and care, he said, should go into deciding to get a tattoo, at least enough to respect the effort and craft that goes into creating one.
“Kids think they know what they want,” he said. “They’re very impulsive. But their likes and dislikes are going to change.”
And when they do, Towey is there with lasers at the ready. He looks at his rising clientele and sees that same potential for change. If tattoos are getting to be “normal,” he said:
“It makes you wonder if they’re going out of style.”

Link to direct story:  http://www.swnewsmedia.com/shakopee_valley_news/news/life-and-death-of-tattoos-from-studio-ink-to-laser/article_8f15841e-dc3d-5c10-8205-966b0b74965f.html