When the Dow is low, the “tramp stamp” has to go.
Dermatologists across the city are reporting a boom in tattoo laser removals, as body-art fanatics fretting over their professional image rush to erase their inky mistakes.
“People can’t afford to handicap themselves be cause of a tattoo in a tight job market,” said Dr. Jef frey Rand, founder of the Tattoo Removal Cen ter in Midtown. “We’re seeing a huge surge right now in people getting rid of their tat toos.”
Mobeen Yasin, a graduate student at Mercy Col lege, said the script tattoo of his first name creeping around his neck is a lia bility.
“I can cover it with a collared shirt, but if I turn my head it sticks out,” said Yasin, a 22-year-old planning a career in finance or law enforcement. “I used to idolize rappers with tattoos. Now I don’t want it to hold me back from getting a job.”
One 34-year-old pharmaceutical salesman said the Irish flag and the wizard that decorate his calves were costing him clients.
“I play a lot of golf with doctors, and these tattoos really stand out,” said the salesman, who did not want to use his name because he feared losing clients.
“I’m embarrassed. I feel like they judge me, and it’s affecting my business.”
Now he gets costly laser treatments once a month to expunge the images from his legs.
Erasing a tattoo requires monthly laser blasts, which break up the pigment dye under the skin.
Each painful zap takes about two minutes and costs at least $200 — and a small tattoo the size of a human chin requires a year of treatments to burn off.
More than 45 million Americans have at least one tattoo, according to an FDA report. At least 25 percent of tattoo-removal clients are erasing the name of an ex from their skin, New York dermatologists said. More than half of their clients are women in their mid-30s.
Carol O’Brien, owner of Midtown medical center Smooth Laser, said she has personally lasered off about 50,000 tattoos in the past 11 years — including some of the body art of rapper 50 Cent. Her clients range from doctors and lawyers to former gang members and inmates.
“I have at least 10 tears [scheduled to be removed] right now,” said O’Brien, referring to the common gang marking of a teardrop carved beneath the eye.
The tear symbolizes having lost someone to a violent crime or having committed a violent crime, said O’Brien.
Elisa Mula, 31, who works in corporate sales at New York Sports Club and lives in Queens, made the mistake of thinking her love would outlast her tattoo.
“I have the name of my husband tattooed on my ankle, but we got divorced in 2001,” Mula said.