A tattoo is meant to be permanent. Unfortunately, what a person might want today may not be what he or she wants two or twenty years from now. Both the procedure of and cost of getting a tattoo are relatively minor in comparison to having it removed at a later date. It may be wise to consider these facts before visiting your local tattoo artist with design and cash in hand.

Two of the most commonly used methods of tattoo removal are also two of the most unsatisfactory. The first method involves removing a piece of skin from a less-noticeable part of your body, and grafting it on top of the tattoo. This odd form of “plastic surgery” covers up the tattoo, but generally leaves scar tissue, as the skin is not in its normal state. Another popular method is to simply go to a tattoo artist and have another design tattooed on top of the unwanted one. With this method, the black outline from the original tattoo will be noticeable through the new one; the larger the original, and the more black ink it has, the more difficult it will be to cover it.

A surgical method which is equally if not more unsatisfactory is called dermabrasion. In layman’s terms, you can think of it as going at your skin with sandpaper. Even when this method is performed by a licensed physician, you will likely decide that the resulting scar is worse than the original tattoo. The reason for the scarring is that removing a tattoo by this method means going through the tattoo and the underlying skin. The scarring left by this method will leave that portion of your skin a much lighter color and a different texture than the surrounding skin. Of all tattoo removal methods currently in practice, dermabrasion is the method which will leave the most noticeable scarring.

Please be advised that you should always consult a doctor before taking any medical advice.