People often ask me what is the worst tattoo that I have been asked to laser? I have to say I’ve not seen one single tattoo that I’d describe as awful…the most frequent requests are simply to remove the name of an ex and/or to remove tattoos that mean nothing – often done on a whim. Likewise the age of most clients is not limited to the young and so-called foolish. I see people from all age groups.

When chatting to people regarding getting a tattoo my advice is, therefore, always to make sure the ink has some personal meaning to you and, although not on your mind when getting a tattoo, I also remind people of the difficult colours to laser off again should you make a mistake (pastel shades, green, aqua, white, yellow etc).

In my own case, I have two tattoos. The first is of my beloved and much missed little dog, Alfie, who sadly died a couple of years ago at the young age of just 5 yrs old.  My second is a ¾ oriental sleeve which also has much personal meaning attached to it. The principal part is a phoenix which has many and varied meanings across different cultures. Some say it embodies feminine qualities with any flames representing purification and transformation through adversity. In general, phoenix tattoos symbolize rebirth and triumph, as well as the renewal and rebuilding of one’s self. In very large oriental tattoos the feminine phoenix is often balanced with the masculine dragon. Likewise cherry blossoms have several meanings in tattoos. Slightly different in Chinese and Japanese cultures, the meaning generally relates to the fleetingness of the life cycle and of beauty itself.

Before getting a tattoo it’s worth researching if there’s any particular meaning attached to your choice…after all you wouldn’t want to tell the world you’ve murdered someone in prison if you’re actually a lovely lollipop lady in Devon