Get Your Tattoo Removed in Time for the Tattoo Convention

SAN ANGELO, TX — This week, tattoo fans from all over the country descend upon San Angelo for the 11th Annual West Texas Tattoo Convention. A new concept in the tattoo arts makes its debut this year, though.

Tattoo removal!

Prestige Med Spa, located at 1131 Knickerbocker Road, confirmed that they will have a booth at this year’s event to demonstrate their ability to remove tattoos. The Tattoo Convention begins today and continues through Sunday at the coliseum. Details, tickets here.

“Approximately 40 percent of people who have a tattoo have some amount of regret,” said Kimberly Mull, a Certified Surgical Technologist at Prestige. She runs the lasers at the spa that up and until last year focused on hair removal. In 2019, the spa introduced a new laser technology that can remove a tattoo.

We’ve all joked about the guy who tattoos his girlfriend’s name on his arm only to have her leave him… or vis versa. Tattoo removal is big business today with the growth in popularity of tattoos.

Alex Trufant, of the famous Trufant Brothers who founded the Tattoo Convention, explained last year that the body is a canvas and tattoos are art. But what if you run out of space for that next tattoo? Now you can remove it with a laser.

Prestige Med Spa’s technology shoots four different wavelengths of light into the skin and can remove virtually any color of ink. The laser beam light directs nanosecond and picosecond pulses of light at the tattoo that will break up the pigments embedded in the skin and scatter that pigment into very small bits that will be absorbed by the body quickly. More accurately, the way it works is, laser energy is absorbed by the pigment in the ink, the ink breaks up into very small pieces, and fades quickly as the body absorbs the particles. Significant fading is achieved with just a single treatment, Mull said.

Mull said a single treatment removes or fades most of a tattoo, and the laser can be directed in very tight patterns, preserving adjacent tattoo artwork. The diameter of the laser pulses can be controlled to within 2 millimeters up to 15 millimeters.

“We can remove specific areas of a tattoo while leaving other areas largely undisturbed,” Mull said.

The new laser technology is less painful than what you may have heard about in the past concerning tattoo removal. “The laser, a Lumenis Piq04, has a lower incidence of blistering,” Mull said. The treatment at Prestige incorporates the use of a special cooler that keeps clients more comfortable, she added.

The cost for tattoo removal varies with the complexity. A four color, very solid tattoo may require several treatments before it is all gone. An all-black, thin line art tattoo may only require one or two treatments. Every situation is different, Mull said. A credit card-sized area requiring a single treatment can run about $800.

Dr. Linda Carrizales, DO, a board certified OB/GYN physician who practices locally, is the medical director at Prestige Med Spa. The spa was founded in 2009 to provide a full range of medical grade services like skin care, massage, physician-administered botox and filler, nail services, microblading, and laser skin treatments that now includes tattoo removal.