Tattoo removal: what to expect in terms of cost

"Hey Dorian, can you give me a breakdown of the cost to expect with tattoo removal methods?"

When you're looking at laser-based methods, you're paying for an initial consultation followed by a per session charge. 

Clinics that are hungry for business might offer the initial consult for free, but usually you're paying about $100 for the privilege. Basically the doctor or his assistant will look at your tattoo, tell you how easy or hard of a job it'll be for the lasers depending on the size, complexity, and amount of ink pigments used. And based on that plan he will recommend a series of laser removal sessions.

In essence you're being charged $100 or so for a sales presentation. But hey, when you get to call your clients "patients," you have that luxury :-)

So how about the cost per session? Depends on part of the country you're from, but expect to pay about $150-$400 per session. If you have a really easy removal job you may have as little as three treatments, but more likely you can expect to be going for five or more. It's not uncommon for someone to continue treatments for two years for larger tattoos that cover the whole of the back or thigh area.

Home-based removal: the cost of a grocery bill

Or not even that. Home-based methods can be surprisingly affordable because they use natural exfoliation to bring the ink up to the surface layers where it is then expelled through natural processes.

Take the aloe vera or lemon juice methods mentioned in my laserless tattoo removal guide . How much do these ingredients cost at your grocery store? $10 max nowadays? Unlike laser methods you'll probably pay a lot less for the removal than the actual tattoo!


Of course at home methods do require more effort on your part, since you'll need to keep to a schedule and exfoliate multiple times a day before you see a decent level of fade. Based on the money you're saving though, it's well worth it. I mean, when you look at a series of laser treatments, you're talking $500 at the very minimum for a small heart tattoo. $1,000 plus for a tattoo of any size, and well into the thousands for larger designs. And you're not even really saving time because you have to keep driving to the clinic and going through multiple sessions.

Just my opinion anyways, as someone who teaches and preaches home-based removal methods. You're free to make your own decisions my friend.

Dangers of laser tattoo removal

"Hey,

Thought experiment: if somebody took away all your knowledge and told you to go with the most popular route – laser removal – would you do it?
 
Hmmm… thought experiments. They push you to think about your position in a whole new way.

Would I do a laser removal if it was the only thing I knew for getting ink off my skin? No I wouldn't. The risks are simply not worth the benefit. 

And I don't care if I had my ex-girlfriend Maria's name tattooed across my chest in big block letters, and my current girlfriend was fuming about it. I’d explain my situation to her using exactly what I'm about to tell you right now:


Laser removal damages skin cells

When you go into a laser removal consultation, either the doctor or his assistant will tell you that the laser they use is highly precise and specifically calibrated to target ink pigment cells.

All of this is correct. But what you may not hear is that vaporizing ink pigment heats up the skin cells around the ink, and can cause the skin cells to suffer water loss and premature death. 

Fresh, living skin below the surface where the ink lies, are killed as a result of laser tattoo removal. The only question is how many?

Too many living skin cells killed and there is a substantial risk of scarring. Each and every time you visit the laser clinic, you contend with this issue. 

Which brings me to my second point: Since vaporizing sub surface ink is relatively hard on the skin, doctors have to spread out treatments over months and years before the level of fade is good enough to call the job finished. It's just more opportunity for the skin to get damaged each time.

Infection risk

What happens to your body when it's knocked out of its natural balance? Opportunists quickly take advantage. And that's exactly what happens after a laser session that leaves your skin cells weak and unable to protect themselves. Infections can, and do occur. 

Scar formation

An overgrowth of scar tissue called Keloid scarring is one of the more unfortunate side effects of laser removal surgery. Not only does an unattractive scar appear over the skin, but it is usually raised and textured as well. Unfortunately these are not temporary scars either.

Laser removal is uneven

The effectiveness of ink removal lasers is dependent on the laser's ability to target the specific ink pigment that produces the tattoo's color. If you have a multicolored tattoo, this is bad news. It's very unlikely that a black, blue, and red tattoo will remove evenly. 

Is the risk worth it?

Even if we make-believe that there are no natural tattoo removal methods, there's always the cover-up option. A coverup takes what you thought was a tattoo that couldn't be turned into anything else, and makes it something completely different. I've seen ex-girlfriend's and ex-boyfriend's names turned into unicorns, tribal symbols, you name it. It can be done. 

So my answer again to the question "laser tattoo removal or nothing" is absolutely nothing (or the coverup instead). 

Okay, now that we're back to reality, and natural methods do exist, the Laserless Tattoo Removal Guide will be of help to anyone who doesn't feel like spending months and thousands of dollars on an inherently more risky procedure than simple homebased exfoliation methods. Check out the guide here: