MINNEAPOLIS -- Have you gotten a tattoo that you now regret? Fear not -- these days you can get it removed. But erasing the ink isn't cheap. It can cost thousands of dollars depending on the size of your artwork and how your body responds.
Aleksandar Nedich, tattoo artist and owner of Northeast Tattoo & Laser Removal, has removed hundreds of unwanted tattoos. When he first decided to incorporate the service to remove tattoos for clients, his friends in the business didn't embrace the idea. Customers at Northeast can spend between $60 and $130 per session. Nedich said it can take up to 15 treatments to remove a tattoo.
"It looked like I was doing the opposite but my justification was the tattoos I was seeing, and the people that needed help, they really needed it," he said.
So, how does it work? The laser targets the color on the skin and delivers a pulse of energy that is selectively absorbed by the tattoo ink, causing it to break apart.
Sessions can take 30 minutes or longer. In some cases, it only takes about two minutes. But the removal doesn't happen in one step. Nedich said his technicians treat about 350 people each month at their Minneapolis location. They also have a shop in St. Paul and Duluth.
"To remove a tattoo, it is not that difficult. The biggest factor of removing it is just the time commitment. It is not a one session process," Nedich said. "It's something that you would have to come in for multiple sessions. I think the bigger part of it is the waiting game."
Christina Casey waited longer than she expected for her unwanted image to disappear. KARE met her at the Tattoo Removal Shop in Edina.
Dr. Mike Towey, who operates the facility, helped Casey when she wanted to have the blue image of elephant removed from her calf. She also had lettering on her fingers. After treatments every ten weeks, over a two year period the ink is finally gone.
Because Towey is a medical doctor, he is able to provide numbing cream to patients help ease the pain, which Casey said made the process easier.
"I am very happy with it -- happy to hear that this might be my last treatment. It took a little longer than I expected, but it is worth it," she said. "I don't think it is any more painful than getting the tattoo to begin with."
Dr. Towey, who said he performed more than 25,000 treatments over the last eight years, said a lot of patients want floral images and lettering removed.
"They have them on every part of their body," he said. "Our lasers are twice as strong as everybody else's. That makes the tattoos come out a little bit faster, but the big advantage is that when you get to the end, the tattoos go away completely. There is no little shadow."
Sessions with Towey start at $130. He offers a package where customers can pay $2,400 up front. Plus, he has other payment options.
"You pay by the tattoo and we figure out how many treatments it most likely is going to take. You pay that off in monthly installments over the course of while it is coming off," Towey said. "If you get to the end and if the tattoo is not going, you keep coming in for free until it is gone. That way we can guarantee that it will go away."
Meanwhile, Nedich, who has had some tattoos removed, said he is glad he ignored his friends who gave him a hard time about entering the business of removing tattoos with lasers. The payoff has been good for him and customers who walk out of his shop are happy.
Meanwhile, here are a few suggestions Nedich says people should consider when determining how easily your tattoo will vanish:
- The density of the tattoo ink in the skin
- The types of tattoo ink that were used
- The color of the tattoo ink
- The presence of pre-existing scarring in the tattoo
- Difference in skin types