Essay on piercings vs tattoos

Submitted By tatlor_tha_sailor
Words: 772
Pages: 4

English 101-016 As a form of expressing oneself, tattoos and piercings have become more common. In society today, tattoos and piercings are becoming more socially acceptable. When one turns eighteen, they legally, can choose to get a tattoo or a piercing. The hard part is choosing which option is best. A tattoo will last forever, and a piercing can be a temporary. I personally think that piercings are better than tattoos. First of all, piercings are never permanent. The easiest way to remove a piercing is to take it out. In cases of body modification, such as ear stretching, procedures are available to have the overstretched ear sewn up. Over a period of time, the ear will heal, and return to its normal state. Tattoos remain in the skin forever, there are options for removal, but these options are never certain. The most common option for tattoo removal is laser removal. It works by targeting the ink with highly concentrated light, breaking up the ink into fragments, which the immune system gets rid of. This is not successful in just one treatment, the more treatments that are done, the more the lasers can destroy and penetrate the ink. The more treatments done not only destroy the remaining ink, but can also destroy the skin cells. Side effects include blisters, scabs that may lead to scaring, and physical pain described as being splattered with hot grease (Hudson 1). Depending on the size of the tattoo, will depend on how many sessions are needed. One tattoo can need one to ten sessions, each session, costing anywhere from two-hundred and fifty to eight-hundred and fifty dollars. One large professional tattoo, vivid in color, could cost thousands of dollars to remove, and effectiveness in removal is not guaranteed. The second option for removal is intense pulsed light therapy. This option is less painful, more effective, but also costs more. Price range for this therapy can be up to ten dollars per pulse. Dermabrasion is another alternative used, which sands away the top layer of skin through abrasion friction. Similar to that is excision, in which the tattoo is cut away, and the skin is sewn back together. These two options cause damage to the skin, and result in severe scaring. Dermabrasion and excision are only used in extreme cases, in which laser surgery is not an option (Hudson 1). There are also do it yourself creams, such as Tattoo-Off and TatBGone. These creams fade the tattoo without pain or damage to the skin. Costs for these creams can be around one-hundred twenty dollars for a two month supply. Another option used is fading the tattoo with saline, tattooing saline solution where the ink is, this is most effective with older tattoos, but is not a reliable method for removal. The last alternative is a cover up, which is to tattoo over the existing tattoo, in hopes of improvement. In choosing to get a tattoo or a piercing, it is important to know the health risks that can come along with each. When getting a