It seems like such a cool idea, especially when you’re young. A tattoo to express yourself in a variety of different ways. However, what seems cool at first may become less cool in later life. Unfortunately tattoos are fairly permanent and removal not easy.
Tattoo removal businesses are doing quite well. In the past removal was done through physical abrasion in a long process, though now it’s mostly non-invasive lasers are used to break down the ink pigments. Nonetheless it too is a long process and not without a good deal of discomfort. There are many instances of the removal process gone wrong.
“Painless, laser-free”
About 40 kilometres north of Montreal in Quebec, an operation in St Eustache called “Bye bye tattoo” billed itself as a painless, laser-free removal process.
Their television advertisements said, “”Bye Bye Tattoo will make your tattoos disappear without pain or scars, thanks to its revolutionary laser-free technology.”
However at least 18 women say they are now scarred for life after treatment, having suffered second-degree burns.
Magalie Courtemanche found herself with far more noticeable scars than the original tattoo. She told Radio-Canada reporters that the owner of Bye Bye Tatoo told her, ‘‘You’ll see, your skin will be like a baby’s. It will come back really nice, there’s nothing to worry about”.
Another customer paid $11,000 dollars for tattoo removal only to also end up also badly scarred.
The story was revealed as a result of an investigation by the Radio-Canada consumer affairs programme “La Facture”
Owner Carmen Tassé, who showed a journalist one of the methods used at Bye Bye Tattoo, said her chemical products lift the ink out of the skin.
She said the shop had been doing the procedure for four years and always had good results. She then told the reporter that she will modify the advertising to leave out the “no scarring’ comment saying “there is a chance of scarring in all treatments”
Tassé said, via her lawyers, that some of her customers did not follow the full treatment programme, and questions whether the cases revealed followed the proper instructions after treatment adding the cases that Radio-Canada discovered were isolated.
Since the story was revealed, the Quebec College of Physicians along with the Public Health Department have both indicated they will look into the case of Bye Bye Tatoo.
With files from Radio-Canada- “La Facture”
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