After breaking up with what is assumed by be her boyfriend, 23-year-old Jess Hardy of Hereford, England decided that she no longer wanted the tattoo bearing his name on her body. Unfortunately for her, it seems that she may have chosen the wrong method of removal, as she’s since offered a warning that has gone viral. Once you see what it looks like now, you’ll understand why.
os are quite popular today, but it seems that a growing percentage of those permanent pieces of art are regretted later down the line. Of course, this reality has resulted in the booming new business of tattoo removal.
As it turns out, removing tattoos is actually more profitable than putting them on, which has even prompted at least one tattoo artist to make the switch. However, for those wishing to have tattoos removed, the procedure is actually a costly one, which has prompted quite a few people to seek alternative and cheaper methods.
As Jess would soon find out, you get what you pay for. (WARNING: Graphic images below)
The equivalent of about $16 was all it cost for Jess to order an at-home tattoo removal kit. When she got it in the mail she couldn’t have been more excited, but that would quickly change.
“I started putting it on at night,” Jess said. “It felt like someone just, poured like, something flammable on my arm, lit it, and then poured a kettle on my arm.”
Later she would realize that the chemical in the tattoo removal kit was actually corrosive and began to eat away at her skin. According to Huffington Post, “The key ingredient in the kit was TCA, or Trichloroacetic acid — a compound used by professionals for cosmetic peels.”
She further described that the wound was “like a hole” in her arm. Here’s what it looked like afterwards:
According to the Chief Plastic Surgery resident at Southern Illinois University in Springfield, Dr. Megan Henderson:
“Any over the counter product claiming to remove a tattoo at home is either not going to do anything for you or potentially contains such caustic substances that will surely result in permanent surrounding skin damage. Like I said it’s expensive and time consuming, but if you care that much about the appearance of the tattoo, it’s worth it.”
Dr. Henderson explains that the only way to rid yourself of an undesirable tattoo is through laser removal. Unlike lathering on a chemical peel, “Lasers work by targeting the pigments within the tattoo,” she went on to say.
After seeing the “post-treatment” pictures, I think we can all agree that this stuff isn’t something to be messed with at home. Of course $16 sounds great when the other option costs hundreds, if not thousands, but you have to consider the big picture.
Despite the fact that Jess simply wanted her tattoo removed, now she’ll always have the reminder in the form of a scar anyways. Like I said before, you get what you pay for, and this unfortunate woman learned just that the hard way.