Mark Wahlberg and Megan Fox have been stealing the spotlight when it comes to tattoo related new stories over the last few weeks all because they are having tattoos removed. Here are just a few of the headlines.
‘Ouch! Mark Wahlberg talks tattoo removal’
‘Wahlberg takes children to see tattoo removal’
‘Megan Fox admits removing Marilyn Monroe tattoo has been “traumatic”’
‘Tattoo removal hurts really bad: Megan Fox’
‘Megan Fox: ‘Tattoo removal hurts really bad”
Not surprisingly, the stories of Megan Fox don’t seem to have much substance at all. She was recently interviewed on Jay Leno and spoke about her tattoo removal. Dozens of media sources have taken the two or three sentences about how painful the process is and ran with them. She said that when the laser hit her skin,
it sort of exploded and looked like little kernels of popcorn popping up. It’s traumatic and it’s incredibly painful. They can’t numb it enough to make the pain go away.
It hurts really bad. It’s really painful.
Did we really need Megan Fox to inform the nation that tattoo removal is painful? Or is it that we hold celebrities to such high standards that we forget that they are still human beings who are capable of feeling the same pain as the rest of us?
Maybe it’s just that I don’t understand our society’s obsession with every single detail in the lives of celebrities, but to me this just isn’t newsworthy. Anyone who cares to know anything about Megan Fox already knows that she is in the process of removing the Marilyn Monroe tattoo from her arm. The decision to remove the tattoo was making headlines months ago. But the main message behind the recent slew of articles is that tattoo removal hurts, really really hurts. Why is common knowledge turned into a new story when it comes out of the mouth of a celebrity?
Wahlberg on the other hand has a more interesting story to tell. He regrets his tattoos, and I can’t say I blame him. He has a tattoo of Sylvester eating Tweety on his ankle, which he got to cover a poorly done shamrock tattoo. Bob Marley and the words ‘One Love’ on one arm and his last name overlaid on top of a cheesy looking MW logo on the other. Finally, he has a rosary around his neck and down the center of his chest. I would have some serious tattoo regret if those are the images I chose to have inked on my body. Except for the rosary, had Mark read my basic tattoo advice, he would not have ended up with those tattoos. In general, pop-culture references are not a great idea, and I’m not a big fan of tattoos that contain names, yes even your own name, or lettering in general.
Wahlberg has made it clear that he does not want his children to get tattoos and has decided to bring his two oldest children along to his laser removal sessions, making them watch the entire process. He wants them to understand just how painful it is and essentially scare them out of the idea of getting tattoos for themselves in the future.
I’m not necessarily against the idea of him bringing his children to the procedure, but they are only 5 and 8 years old. That means they have at minimum, 10 years before they can get tattooed without parental consent. He has obviously made some poor choices with his ink and is assuming that his children will do the same and grow to regret the decision later in life.
I think a much more valuable lesson would be teaching them to make better decisions. They need to think long and hard about the decision to get tattooed and the consequences that go along with that decision. A tattoo that has been planned properly and placed correctly should not need to be removed later in life. Regardless of the advances in removal techniques, I think people should always consider a tattoo a permanent because successful, clean removal is not a guarantee by a long shot. Depending on the color of ink used, it may be impossible to completely remove certain tattoos. If you are thinking about tattoo removal while you are planning your first tattoo, you probably shouldn’t be getting a tattoo in the first place.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Wahlberg’s children grow older. Will the popularity of tattoos continue to grow until that time, or will they fall out of fashion? When everyone around them is covered in tattoos, will they think back to the day that their father went through the painful ordeal of removing his ink? Or will they decide to rebel against him and get tattooed out of spite? Only time will tell.