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[title]When clients come to Lazer Erazer for a tattoo removal session, they often tell owner Jade Louise that the shop doesn’t feel like an actual clinic. That’s exactly what Louise hoped for when she started her business in 2015: to be the opposite of the impersonal, dental office-esque clinics that make an already painful experience that much more terrifying.
The shop, which is located on Smith Street in Collingwood, looks more like a plant nursery or even a funky sharehouse than it does a clinic. With heaps of greenery in the windows, walls covered in vibrant art and shelves full of vinyl records, DVDs and gaming consoles, you’ll forget what you came in for and feel right at home.
“I want you to feel like you’re at a mate’s house,” says Louise. “Laser is terrifying, and it’s partly the atmosphere that makes it that way.”
Before becoming a technician, Louise was a laser tattoo removal client. After an unpleasant experience at a clinic that left her feeling pretty terrible, Louise decided to enter the industry herself and offer a different kind of service.
“A lot of laser clinics are focused more on the laser aspect, but to understand tattoo removal you have to understand tattooing,” says Louise. “Not only does it help you get good results because you understand how the tattoo was implemented and how best to remove it, but it also lets you be on a level with your clients.”
Naysayers told Louise that her business wasn’t professional enough, but with Lazer Erazer still going strong after eight years, it’s clear that there’s a desire for safe and non-judgement spaces like hers.
If you have any permanent and unwanted reminders of a drunken night out inked on your body, or if you simply just aren’t as in love with your tattoo as you used to be, laser tattoo removal may be the answer.
But for most of us, this whole process may sound pretty alien. The idea that you can remove something that we’re all told is pretty permanent by getting shot with laser beams? It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, so we asked Jade to answer some of the most commonly asked questions associated with the process.
In the simplest of terms, how does laser tattoo removal work?
“Tattoo ink is made out of metal that solidifies under the skin, and laser shatters that metal into a million different pieces,” says Louise. “Your white blood cells, they’re your filtration soldiers. They go around and gobble up those bits of metal and you eliminate them from your body.”
What are the most difficult types of tattoos to remove?
“It seems a bit bizarre, but black is actually the easiest colour to remove. All the other colours on the spectrum become a little trickier. This is because different coloured inks absorb different coloured laser lights.
“Anything on an extremity, like your feet, toes and hands, are more difficult to remove. They’re furthest from your heart, so there’s not much circulation or blood flow there. Anything closer to your heart, like your chest and upper back, will usually fade out much more easily.”
Do tattoo removal creams actually work?
“I’ve bought and used them, and they’re 100 per cent a hoax. Creams that you apply topically often just whiten your skin and don’t get rid of the tattoo, or they have acid in them and they basically eat your flesh and burn your skin, leaving you with nasty scarring.
“When they make a cream that will break down tattoo ink, I’m all for it. I’m an anti-laser laserist. I’m fine with being the Blockbuster of laser if it means we have a safe and effective way to remove tattoos pain-free.”
Can you describe what it feels like to get laser tattoo removal?
“Sometimes it feels like the part you’re getting lasered is in the microwave. Or like a sparkler touching your skin, or a rubber band getting flicked onto sunburnt skin, or like when you cook and hot oil gets you. Sometimes during a session, I’ll give myself a zap to make the client feel more comfortable and show them it doesn’t hurt that much.
"It’s definitely way more painful than getting a tattoo in the first place, but it’s a different sort of pain. It sucks, but it’s short-lived. What takes a tattooist hours to ink takes laser seconds or minutes to remove. And if you combine that with numbing cream, I swear to you it’s like a walk in the park.”