Regrets, yes they've had a few

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Regrets, yes they've had a few
12/30/07
By LAURIE GRANIERI
STAFF WRITER
granieri@thnt.com
Home News Tribune

What's in a name?

When it comes to tattoos, a lot.

A 2003 Harris Poll reports that those who regret their tattoos do so most often "because of the person's name in the tattoo." Others say they were unhappy with the way the tattoo looked.

Franklin Park's Paula Bertagna says the abdominal tattoo of an ex-boyfriend's name did "offend" her husband when they first got together. Now she's having it removed.

"I'm probably doing it more for (my husband) than for me," admits Bertagna, 38. "It's part of my personal history. When she sees it, "I think of my past, a fun, free part of my life. . . . But my husband hates it. I don't want him to be upset about it. . . . It's a clean slate."

Somerset's Nicole Doyle, 35, isn't about to have her ex-boyfriend's name removed from her thigh or the rose tattoo deleted from her breast; she says she can't afford laser tattoo removal, a process that can cost thousands of dollars. But she says she has already warned her 15-year-old daughter not to make the same mistake.

"I said, "Never a man's name.'. . . I'm getting ready to get divorced. Thank God I didn't get his name tattooed on me."

Others, like Somerville's Nikki Pasquino, 35, claim certain designs no longer fit their lifestyle. While Pasquino adores the small hip tattoo of her name superimposed over the Italian flag, she can't stand the sight of the approximately 6-inch-by-2-inch Harley-Davidson logo on her left thigh.

"The problem was there was no meaning Û I don't even like motorcycles," Pasquino says of the 14-year-old tattoo. She and her friend, who chose a peace-symbol tattoo, "were just being silly. I wouldn't even go on a motorcycle. . . . Everyone thinks I'm a Harley chick. I was getting a complex. I was sick of explaining it."

Pasquino has endured eight painful laser sessions Û "It's horrific. It feels like hot grease" Û at about $290 each. She says the tattoo is still "very visible."

Besides, Pasquino says, think of the future: "I'll be a 70-year-old on the beach, and I'll look ridiculous."

Old Bridge's Michele Hadden, 24, had part of a small ankle tattoo removed when she developed hives on her body and ended up at the hospital. Hadden, a nurse, says she developed an allergic reaction to the red hue in the American-flag design that was applied to her emergency medical technician Star of Life.

"It itched so bad," Hadden remembers. "To even touch it felt so bad." She says doctors "had to burn down the skin with silver nitrate" once a week for 1 to 2 months in order to remove the pigment. Hadden says she is left with a "bad scar" but that her other tattoos are "fine, no problem."

Monroe's Chrissy Shapter is in the midst of having what she describes as a tribal design removed from her right shoulder. Shapter, 27, says she paid $90 for her tattoo when she was 16 and has spent $1,000 for five laser "1- to 2-minute" tattoo-removal treatments. Shapter describes the procedure as "completely painless" and says the slight soreness she feels afterward Û most patients and doctors compare the look and feel to a "sunburn" Û fades within 30 minutes.

When Shapter got the tattoo, "I just thought it was cool, different," she says. But 2 1/2 years ago she was in a friend's wedding, saw the exposed tattoo and "didn't like how it looked. You're all dressed up and you have this tattoo you hate. It doesn't look nice to me anymore."

But she's keeping the black Celtic cross on her lower back.

"That I don't mind," Shapter says of the 6-inch-by-3-inch tat 00005too. "It can be covered."

Laurie Granieri:

(732) 565-7333;

granieri@thnt.com

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