Increased Number of Over-tatted Millennials Seeking Tattoo Removal

Increased Number of Over-tatted Millennials Seeking Tattoo Removal

The scars of youth are forever…unless you can afford a good plastic surgeon.

A New Jersey-based plastic surgeon has seen an influx of younguns looking to undo their permanent marks of self-expression. Turns out, not all employers are fans of neck tats and gauged earlobes.

From North Jersey:

Some people get really carried away,” says Sterman, chief of plastic surgery at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck. The multiple holes are one thing. But then there’s the many large and heavy objects hung from all those holes — and we’re not just talking regular old diamond stud earrings or tiny crucifixes anymore — before the poor ear is literally stretched to its outermost limits.

Call it a strange sign of the times. Some doctors, like Sterman, say they are noticing more and more millennials coming in because their ears have become deformed from overpiercing and need reconstructive surgery.

And it’s not just ear piercing. Many are seeking to reverse the impulsive, perhaps keg-fueled decisions of their not-quite-lost youths. That tongue piercing, that bone through the nose, that conspicuously placed tattoo you got in college may not go over so big now in a job interview, or in the board room. It’s time to conform to the real world.

The real world is mean, and unless you’re fortunate enough to earn a living in the creative sphere, probably not very forgiving of permanent body art.

“There has been an influx of people, millennials in particular, who have a lot of body piercings — mainly facial piercings — that they are looking to change,” says Dr. Laurence Milgrim, a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in Teaneck. “These are large earring holes, larger than the usual stud hole. When the earlobe and other parts of their bodies are expanded, they have trouble in the classic work force. Nose piercings, ear piercings … and tattoo removal, especially on the neck, where it’s noticeable, has become popular.”

An estimated 36 percent of Americans have at least one piercing somewhere other than an earlobe, according to a 2012 Pew Research study. Other research suggests the figure is as high as 56 percent for those between 17 and 25.

In most cases, the ravaged earlobe, the mutilated upper-ear cartilage, the messed-up tongue piercing and even the most elaborate tattoo can be removed or fixed in one or more visits.

“As plastic surgeons, we do fix them, and we can do a very nice job. I have had people with massively stretched-out ear lobes and now, you would not even be able to tell,” says Dr. Daniel Maman, a board-certified plastic surgeon at 740 Park Plastic Surgery in Manhattan. “It depends. But I have fixed some severe deformities under a local anesthesia and here in the office.”

Earlobe reconstructive surgery and quality tattoo removal cost anywhere from $500 to $2,000 a pop.

Let that be a lesson to all you young whipper-snappers — what’s desirable now may prove prohibitive later.

I for one am glad Professor Jacobson has no problem with our neck tattoos.*

* We don’t really have neck tattoos. Yet.

Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye

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