Tattooed people say, ‘Off with the marks’

Joe Garcia remembers -- all too well -- when and where he got his arm tattooed.

It was 1963 and Joe -- a 19-year-old Marine in training -- was out on the town in San Diego with some buddies who dared him to do it.

" 'What are you, a wuss?' " he remembers them saying.

So when he walked out of the tattoo parlor, $7.50 poorer, he did so with the image of a skull and eight-ball inked on his forearm.

"It upset my parents real bad," Garcia admits.

Joe Garcia's parents may be gone; after all, he's 68 years old.

But that doesn't mean the Henderson resident has forgotten them -- or how they felt about his tattoo.

Which explains why he's sitting in the Summerlin office of dermatologist H.L. Greenberg, awaiting his second laser treatment to remove his tattoo.

"I'm doing it in memory of my parents," Garcia explains. "I know they didn't like it -- and now I can afford to get it done."

It's hardly an inexpensive proposition.

At Fresh Canvas -- a division of Greenberg's Las Vegas Dermatology practice -- single treatment charges range from $199 for a 1- to 3-inch tattoo, to $225 for a 3- to 5-inch image, to $299 for a 5- to 7-inch tattoo.

Discounts are available for multiple treatments -- and almost every case requires multiple treatments, Greenberg says.

"It depends on the size and the color" of the tattoo being removed, he notes.

But removing a "sleeve" from a fully tattooed arm might cost as much as $10,000, he estimates.

In the treatment room, Greenberg chills Garcia's arm before revving up his $120,000 RevLite laser, which arrived in his office last Halloween.

"You'll hear a tick," the dermatologist advises Garcia. "If it's not loud, it's not working."

Greenberg traces Garcia's tattoo with the laser's narrow beam, which fires into the patient's dermis in nanosecond bursts, targeting the ink.

"It's almost like sound waves, disturbing the (ink) particles," Greenberg explains.

In about six weeks, Garcia will be ready for his next treatment. He likens the treatment's sensation to "a rubber band being snapped."

So does Larry Shipp, who's about to undergo the third of eight treatments in Greenberg's office. (You can watch Shipp's first two treatments online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkZulbN-vUI.)

"I was initially scared because of the pain, but it's really relatively painless," said Shipp, 34, an Iraq war veteran who became disabled when he was hit by an improvised explosive device in 2003.

In his view, the laser treatments hurt less than getting the tattoos.

It's a subject Shipp, also a Henderson resident, knows very well. Although Greenberg is removing three tattoos on his upper back, Shipp still has multiple elaborate designs on his chest, arms and legs, which he's collected over the past decade or so.

"It's just a way to express myself," Shipp says. "I like the process -- letting the artist be really creative."

And once Greenberg completes lasering "Down and Dirty," a small clown face and some Asian characters from Shipp's back, Shipp plans to "open my horizons" -- by getting more tattoos.

In other words: fresh canvas.

That's what veteran tattoo artist Mario Barth -- who owns King Ink at The Mirage and Starlight Tattoo at Mandalay Bay -- calls untattooed skin. And it's where Greenberg got the name for his tattoo removal division.

In Barth's view, the best tattoo removal technique "currently is the laser Dr. Greenberg is using," he says. "It makes it very easy to lighten up" existing tattoos -- which in turn makes it easier to tattoo over a previous design.

According to Greenberg, about 20 percent of the U.S. population has tattoos, although that percentage "feels higher in Las Vegas," he says.

And while no one getting a tattoo thinks about getting it removed -- at the time -- circumstances, and feelings, change. (Think of Johnny Depp, who had his "Winona Forever" tattoo shortened to "Wino Forever" after he and then-fiancee Winona Ryder split up.)

"I'm dying to have a reality show about tattoo removal," according to Mary Arnold-Ronish , founder and president of Las Vegas-based Tattoo Vanish Inc.

"I've got so many stories, I could do a 10-year reality show," she says, noting that client situations range from "something funny and silly to something that could cost them their life," including ex-gang members anxious to eliminate signs of their violent pasts.

One Tattoo Vanish client, divorced but newly engaged, still had her ex-husband's name tattooed on her ring finger, notes sales and marketing director Lisa Shealy .

"Her fiance told her, 'No ring -- and no wedding -- until you get that dude's name off your finger.' " But "more than anything, people can't get a job because they've got a tattoo showing," Arnold-Ronish says. (Before-and-after photos of Tattoo Vanish treatments and client testimonials are available online at www.tattoovanishinc.com.)

Unlike laser removal, Tattoo Vanish uses a topical saline-based solution to remove the tattoo, "pulling the ink out the same way it went in," Arnold-Ronish explains. "The FDA has no interest in regulating it, because we're all natural."

Following the Tattoo Vanish procedure, clients are instructed to keep the treatment area dry for two weeks so a scab can form over the treated area. During the healing period, "the ink is pulled into the scab," she says.

While Tattoo Vanish is usually "not a one-time process," Arnold-Ronish says hers requires fewer treatments to remove tattoos than laser does; the average is three to five sessions. And although charges are determined case by case, Shealy estimates a single treatment for a 1-inch-by-1-inch tattoo would cost about $150.

Other tattoo removal methods include dermabrasion (where the tattooed skin is sanded down to deeper levels with a high-speed, abrasive wheel or brush, allowing the ink to leach out of the skin) and surgical removal (in which the tattoo is removed with a scalpel and the skin is stitched back together).

For Barth, laser treatments are definitely the way to go -- especially for those who want a "fresh canvas" for new tattoos.

"It's a huge trend" in the tattoo industry, he says, in part because contemporary tattoo artists "are doing such incredible work."

As for the expense of tattoo removal, "I don't think it really matters," he says. "Even the tattoos are getting expensive, because of the artistry. People are willing to spend."

Just ask Joe Garcia, who's charging his laser treatments on his credit card.

"Insurance don't do it," Garcia says, "so I did."

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.