FOR nearly 13 years, she had a vivid tattoo of a rose over a tribal pattern on her left shoulder.
Miss Zu (not her full name) adored it.
'A tattoo for some of us really shows who we are, and that tattoo showed who I was,' she said.
Masculine, yet ladylike. But this year, the 28-year-old fitness trainer decided to get rid of it.
The process, though, was more painful than she had thought.
She was unable to complete her treatment because of the pain. She was supposed to go for 12 sessions. She stopped at three.
She is not the only one.
Last Monday, The New Paper featured a schoolboy who was ordered to remove his tattoos, but he refused.
He was too scared to do so after hearing a horror story from friend who underwent the laser removal procedure.
Miss Zu was just 16 when she got the tattoo 'at the spur of the moment' from a shop in Jalan Besar.
Then, she drank and clubbed nearly every day.
But her drinking and partying days are behind her as she is getting married next year.
Her mum - who had always opposed her tattoo - said if she could change her lifestyle, she should remove her tattoo too.
'She wanted me to take it off, because no matter how much you change, as long as you have the tattoo, other people will see you the same way.'
And her future in-laws didn't even know she had a tattoo. Her fiance was worried.
She went to Eden Medical Aesthetics, which offers tattoo removal services, upon a friend's recommendation. Although the tattoo was just the size of a palm, it had seven colours: Black, turquoise, pink, red, orange, blue and yellow.
Getting a tattoo off
These colours make it hard to remove.
Said Eden's Dr Ashraff S Eilyaas: 'In addition to that, her tattoo is very dark and a lot of ink was used, which also makes it more difficult to remove.'
For Miss Zu, the treatment itself was endurable. Since the tattoo was small, each session was over in about 20 minutes, and she only felt the heat of the laser. It was the recovery, she said, that was unbearable.
The tattoo would be sore for days.
Her job requires her to move and run a lot.
But the pain, the plasters and gauss on her back restricted her movement.
The spot where the tattoo is could also get very itchy.
So she stopped - to her mum's disappointment - and changed her remaining sessions to beauty treatments instead.
'The treatment cost me $1,900 (in all) and I only paid $140 for the tattoo,' she said.
So does she wish she had never got the tattoo? No.
'I don't regret it, even now,' she said.
But does she regret going for the tattoo removal treatment?
'Not so because I went only for three sessions, so there wasn't that much difference. The tattoo has become lighter,' she said.
More teens removing tattoos
MORE teenagers are going to specialists to have tattoos removed, say aesthetics doctors in Singapore.
Dr Ashraff S Eilyaas from Eden Medical Aesthetics said he has even seen a patient as young as nine, who he said was pressured into having tattoos by his peers.
He said: 'The main difference between the young and old is that adults decide to remove it on their own. Youngsters are usually asked, pressured or forced to remove them by parents or school, which in itself presents another whole set of problems.'
He sees about 10 to 15 cases a month, and 80 per cent are aged between nine and 25.
Dr Valentin Low of the Aesthetic & Laser Clinic said 80 per cent of his average 10 to 20 tattoo removal? patients a month are teenagers and the number is going up.
He said the cost for tattoo removal ranges from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
The size, depth and colour of the tattoo determine the length and number of treatments. Each treatment is placed four to eight weeks apart to allow the body to remove tattoo pigments after each laser.
Dr Chua Sze Hon, senior consultant dermatologist at National Skin Centre (NSC), said the hardest colours are skin coloured, yellow, green, pale-coloured or highly reflective ('bright') tattoos.
He said NSC gets 20 to 40 new cases a month and does 120 to 200 treatments a month. About 50 per cent are teenagers, and there is a 'gradual uptrend'. The youngest patient was 11.
Complete removal is possible only for light and superficial tattoos, like amateur tattoos, he said.
Blistering, pigmentary changes and skin textural change (treated area becomes a little bumpy compared with normal skin) are some of the risks involved.
Dr L L Cheong, of the Skin & Laser Clinic at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said, unlike previous treatments such as shaving off the upper layer of the skin or the old carbon dioxide laser, modern day laser treatments are less likely to cause scarring, though there is still a risk.
But how does tattoo removal work?
Dr Cheong Wai Kwong of Specialist Skin Clinic explained: 'Removal of tattoos by laser involves using a specific wavelength of light that passes into the skin but is absorbed by the tattoo ink only.
'The rapid absorption of light energy causes the tattoo ink to disintegrate into tiny particles which are then removed by the body's natural filtering systems.
'For this reason, the lightening of the tattoo after laser ablation takes place few weeks after the treatment.'
He added: 'It can be painful. The impact of the laser, being a powerful pulse of light is likened to the snap of a small rubber band on the skin.
'Usually, anaesthesia creams are applied and left on for an hour before the laser treatment to minimise pain.'
With all the pain, hassle and cost involved in tattoo removal, Dr Ashraff said people should ask themselves three questions before getting one.
1. Can I live with something artificially done on my body that will last a lifetime?
2. Will I run into problems after getting the tattoo that will force me to decide to somehow remove it?
3. Why do I want to get that tattoo? Do I already have the design in mind?
He said: 'You can change clothes. With piercings, you can change jewellery. But you can't change a tattoo.'
