Plastic Surgeons Zap the Tramp Stamp

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Because the current recession may be easing a bit, more people are going on job interviews. Naturally, they want to look impressive and fit in.

And with the national unemployment rate at 8.9 (with 10 and 11 percent in some states!) one thing is for sure: you will have a lot of company competing for that job.

Nonetheless, some job applicants do – or have — some things that almost make sure they will be dismissed before anybody reads their resumes: they have, or get, a tattoo or face piercings.

According to the Business Insider blog, with swarms of people applying for few jobs, employers are looking for ways to quickly reduce the crowding. Quickly showing full arm tattoo applicants the door is one way to get through the day.

Of people 26 to 40, about 40 percent have at least one tat.

So one area of plastic surgery that has definitely picked up for plastic and cosmetic surgeons, along with many dermatologists, is removing “tramp stamps.”

Sure, body art and modifications are creative expressions, doubtless covered under freedom of speech. But not everybody agrees on what is acceptable.

For better or worse, tattooing has traditionally been the calling card of jails and prisons, motorcycle bums, tramp steamships and inner city gangs.

Enter the laser tattoo removal specialist.

Lasers break up tattoo ink which is then secreted from your body. But several to a handful of appointments may be necessary depending on:

• The age of the tattoo – New tats may be harder to remove.

• The inks – Black goes quickly but green, yellow and purple are bears to remove.

• How deeply the ink was injected

• Tattoo size and location – Neck tattoos are the most painful to remove.

Surgeons say not all the ink can be removed because they don’t know what type of many inks were used. You can expect three weeks between appointments to give your immune system a chance to clear lasered ink particles.

The discomfort is often compared to the sensation you feel when first getting a tattoo. Removal is said to be like specs of hot bacon grease splattering on your skin or a thin rubber band snapping against you.

Observes one blogger: “When the Dow is low, ‘tramp stamps’ have to go!”

admin @ July 7, 2009