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The painful and expensive process of removing tattoos

After a night of merriment did you end up with a tattoo that just isn't your style anymore? There are different options for those willing to spend the cash, the time and pain to clean the slate.
Maybe that Dead Head skull, with a sea turtle, on top of a rose pedestal tattoo you got when you were a teenager doesn't fit your personality at age 30; there are options.

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So, you leave a bar late at night and hit an ink shop with friends. A spur of the moment tattoo, maybe a unicorn or a soon to be ex-boy or girlfriend’s name. But what if you wake up one day thinking 'uh oh, what have I done?

For Sage Coy, it was a grateful dead tattoo, a turtle within a skull, atop a rose pedestal.

“It was pretty spontaneous. I just thought it was a good idea, being like a dumb teenager," explains Sage.

That was three years ago; now at 20, she's undergoing a revolutionary laser procedure called Enlighten.

Maybe that Dead Head Skull with a sea turtle on top of a rose pedestal tattoo you got when you were a teenager doesn't fit your personality at 30; there are options.

"In lasers, we don't talk seconds, we talk fractions of a second," explains Dr. Franziska Ringpfeil, a dermatologist who works in tattoo removal.

You don't need to know how the burst of light laser works, but you do need to know one thing -- it hurts.

"It's the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my whole life," says Sage.

An electric, rackety noise can be heard in the procedure room; it’s the sound of the pigment shattering underneath Sage’s skin.

"It feels like a heated cheese-grader, grading your skin," says Sage.

For 12 minutes Sage takes deep breaths and grips a stress ball that does what stress balls are meant to do.

If you look closely, you can see the color begin to fade, which is reassuring to the person in the chair paying money and pain for the accomplishment.

"That laser reaches into the second layer, reaches the ink, breaks it apart there, breaks it into small enough pieces. The immune system of the body comes by, sees, oh there is some loose pigment there, let me go nibble on that," says Dr. Ringpfeil.

A small tattoo begins at $75. Larger ones could set you back thousands.

"So, there are some spots where you can kind of see my skin again," says Sage.

Sage originally spent seven hours and $2,500 getting her Dead-Head tattoo.

Removing the tattoo with the Enlighten Laser happens over the course of many months and the cost depends on the size and color of your ink.

Remember, think before you ink.

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