Twenty-three tattoos – Why Charlotte is removing them all
Charlotte Ahern, a 22-year-old Glebe resident, has decided to remove all 23 of her tattoos.
Twenty-three tattoos – Why Charlotte is removing them all
By Brooke Sanchez
Charlotte Ahern was 17 when she got her first tattoo – a set of one-line faces on her left forearm. Her parents signed for it for her birthday because it was something she really wanted, and she didn’t want to wait until she was 18. She got her second tattoo a year later, and then she was hooked, getting one to two new tattoos per month for about another year.
Now, the 22-year-old Glebe resident has decided to remove all 23 of her tattoos.
“I loved them all at one point. Looking back, my mental health was in a bad place at that time, and I got a lot of my tattoos with someone that I am not friends with anymore,” says Ahern. “When I got out of that situation and started to feel better, it was like I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. It felt like I woke up – it was a strange feeling. I realized that my tattoos were too much of a reminder of my past, and I needed to let them go.”
Some of Ahern’s tattoos were done while she was under the influence, and some she got on really good deals. Unfortunately “it showed,” she said of the poor quality when the designs blew out, filled with ink or didn’t heal properly.
Seeking to relieve herself from a past that was present and permanently marked on her body, Ahern sought options to remove her tattoos. That led her to Removery’s Glebe studio where she’s now about a year into her tattoo-removal journey.
When you get a tattoo, the artist pushes ink under your skin with lots of tiny needles. This ink lodges itself into your middle layer of skin, called dermis. While your body flushes away the smaller particles of ink over time, most of them are too large to be taken away naturally.
Laser tattoo removal works by hitting the large particles of ink directly, completely avoiding your top layer of skin. When the laser hits them, it breaks them into smaller pieces that your body can flush away naturally until the tattoo is gone.
That’s why it can take a few sessions. It’s your body working in tandem with the laser to get rid of the ink.
“As soon as it started to fade, I was so happy. It’s indescribable. I’m getting back the body that I felt like I lost,” said Ahern.
Removery tells clients to anticipate eight to 12 treatments spaced a minimum of six weeks apart for complete removal. For cases like Ahern’s, where a very large surface area is being treated with heavy ink saturation in some places, Removery will split up the treatments to improve comfort and allow for a more consistent and safe treatment experience.
“Tattoos aren’t permanent anymore – and they certainly don’t define who you are,” shared, Removery’s co-founder Carmen VanderHeiden Brodie. “We pride ourselves on offering a judgement-free environment in our studios, so whatever your reason is, we’re here to help with that transformation.”
Ahern says her experience with tattoos has affected her self-confidence.
“But I’m not swearing off tattoos,” she said. “I might get more and there’s a few I may want to have redone, but I wouldn’t have to put them in certain positions if I wasn’t trying to fill the sleeves initially.”
A piece of advice from Ahern: the decision to get a tattoo or removal is not one to make lightly.
“It didn’t really click that I would actually regret my tattoos when I was older. If you’re looking at something on your body and it’s causing you discomfort or just a general dislike, it’s not a bad thing to seek a change.”
Brooke Sanchez is the senior regional manager for Removery Canada, a tattoo removal company with a studio on Bank Street in the Glebe.