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Ink Erasures

by Anne M. Raso

What happens when you want to say bye-bye to body art?

Today, tattoos are part of mainstream culture. But what happens when the thrill is gone and you no longer want to wear your heart on your “sleeve”? (Sleeve is slang for a tattoo or series of tattoos that covers most of the arm.) For African Americans, removing—and even getting—a tattoo comes with a specific set of concerns: What ink colors will show up best on your complexion but will also be the easiest to erase?

When tattoos are removed from black skin, the method of removal is critical. Why? Because the biggest issue is how to avoid scarring the skin. Most know this scarring as keloiding.

Although there is a small possibility of developing a keloid, or raised scar, from getting a tattoo or body piercing, especially for dark-skinned people, “The bigger risk [for keloiding] is if the person wants to have that tattoo removed and there is a family history of keloids—that is when there is a greater risk,” says Mitchell Chasin, MD, one of northern New Jersey’s premier dermatologists with a large African-American clientele.

Specifically, the risk is about 20 percent more in someone who has darker skin, Chasin explains, but doctors don’t totally understand why that is. “The hereditary basis is there…[and] doctors can postulate about why they occur, but there is no clear-cut answer to that question.” One theory is that keloids result from the body’s inability to turn off the healing process that repairs skin, causing extra collagen to form on the outer periphery of a scar.

Currently, keloids cannot be prevented. And while they are not contagious, they are unsightly. The scars often rise above the rest of the skin, expanding in fingerlike formations. In severe cases, they might appear as dome-shaped pink or red bubbles. Also, they can be painful. The scar tissue might burn and itch, and, depending on where it’s located, it might cause muscles, tendons, ligaments or skin to tighten in a way that prevents normal movement (called a contracture). Keloids affect both sexes equally.

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