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For some, satisfaction not as permanent as tattoo
SCSU senior Jenny Nies, 22, was 19 when she got her first and only tattoo.
At the time, she said, she had wanted one for a while. Nies, who is a double major in psychology and communication studies, chose a blue and yellow tropical fish design for her tattoo.
She went to Absolute Tattoo, located in the Twin Cities, and had the fish tattooed on her lower left abdomen.
Getting a tattoo is painful, she said. She described the process as, "Take a needle and rub it back and forth on your skin. That's exactly what it feels like. Keep doing it until it gets really irritated, and then keep doing it. It took two hours straight."
Nies' tattoo cost her $125. She had her heart set on getting it, and loved it at first. But three months later, it started to fade. Eventually the yellow coloring on the fish all but disappeared, and the blue was no longer vivid.
"The shape is fine," she said, "but the colors are so faded. They said I could go back in and get it redone, but then it's like another $100, and that's ridiculous."
Nies said she went to a parlor in the Twin Cities hoping for more variety, better artists and higher quality work than what she might have found in St. Cloud. Instead, she got the opposite.
"I would never go there again," Nies said. "They didn't do a very good job at all, and I didn't think they were professional, either."
The permanency of her tattoo did not sink in until her feelings about it soured. It was not until then, she said, that she actually realized that she was going to forever wear the faded fish.
"You don't really realize at the time you're getting it that it's permanent," Nies said. "It's always there."
Nies added that she was glad she had the tattoo done on her stomach, because it is an inconspicuous place. She said she thought that age restrictions regarding tattoos should be higher, so anyone thinking about getting a tattoo would have to think long and hard about it.
"When you're 18 or 19 you don't really care," she said, "but I'm going to have this when I'm 80, and that's dumb."
Nies offered the following advice for people considering a tattoo: "I would say two things: think about it, and then think about it. You have to remember that it's permanent, because I didn't think about permanency."
She also suggested that people research the place they plan to go to for the tattoo. Look at some of the work that the artist has done, she advised, and ask other people what they think about the artist and parlor.
Nies said she has considered laser surgery to remove the tattoo, but the cost has discouraged her for the moment. She is not concerned, she said, because not many people see the tattoo.
Dr. Paul M. Heath, a plastic surgeon with Midsota Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons P.A., said the success of tattoo removal surgery depends on the color of the tattoo. Lighter colors generally respond better to treatment.
"Some darker colors are not possible to remove," he said. "It also depends on whether the tattoo was done professionally or done at home."
The removal process begins with several meetings between the surgeon and patient, where the patient's goals, concerns and expectations are discussed. Dr. Heath said patients are told that a successful removal may require multi-treatments. The actual surgery lasts between a half-hour and an hour.
Trends show more women than men tend to have tattoos removed, he said, which he suspected was because men have an easier time hiding a tattoo. Patients are generally in their late 20s and early 30s, and like Nies, most want to remove a tattoo from their teen-age years.
"It is important to note," Dr. Heath said, "no tattoo can be removed, it can only be 'lightened up.'" He added that successive treatments are often necessary for a successful "removal," the price of which varies with the number of treatments.
Eric O'Link can be reached at: [email protected]
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