Tat-B-Gone

Today's assignment: tattoo removal clinic. The process is not as magical as it sounds: it's not painless and it doesn't exactly "remove" the tattoo. In fact, immediately after treatment, the outline of the tattoo actually becomes edematous and is thus more prominent and reddened. The surrounding skin becomes inflamed, apparently with the sensation of having been burned. Eventually, after several treatments, the tattoo fades - sometimes completely. Other times, there is a shadow, scar, hypo or hyper pigmentation. One guy who was having treatment on six (6!) tats revealed where another of his tattoos had been, and there was no sign. So, it works, depending on a person's skin integrity, the quality of the tattoo (do-it-yourself = yikes!) and the immune system. The way it works is that a laser sends short impulses of light into the epidermis; the light is absorbed and breaks the pigment from the ink in the tattoo into smaller particles that can be removed by the immune system. Varying wavelengths are used in order to deliver the best possible ink removal.

Basically, it's a great service. It serves a lot of former gang members and a lot of guys who took penknives and fountain pens to themselves in juvie. The docs take off a lot of neck and face tattoos. (Ouch!) I should mention that I was even allowed to be zapped for three seconds, just to have the true anthropological participant-observer moment. I went "cold" (no lidocaine) and the laser was, of course, set much lower than for the tattoo removal. Also, not having the ink in my skin prevented the pain that ensues from the ink's dissipation into the skin and the macrophagic action. When I was zapped by the laser myself, it was like being burned by spattered, hot cooking oil. The difference for me than for those having their tattoos removed? I had no relationship to the freckle being removed from my arm, while these kids have a whole lifetime of experience related to the tattoos that they wear. Tattoos, traditionally a symbol of belonging and the renunciation of the self to the group, are symbolic to the wearers in more ways than I could possibly understand. The choice to have the tattoos removed demonstrates a degree of humility that is above and beyond my comprehension. Having a tattoo removed is more about loss than about renewal. It took some serious strength for those kids to be there.