🎨 Your Weekly Pitch: The tattoo removal business is booming—but not because people regret tattoos
People are removing tattoos to make space for newer and more complex ink
Written by @alexc_journals, a journalist who has said, “This is the last tattoo, I swear!” way too many times.
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THE LEDE
Tattoo removal is a big-bucks business. Sure, removing regrettable tattoos still dominates the reason why we get tattoos removed, but there’s a new reason driving consumers and it’s changing the game.
People are getting tattoos removed because they want even more tattoos than before.
If you want to see what we mean, this is what people are going for:
They fade (or entirely remove) their original tattoo then blast it over with a gorgeous coverup.
And their purchases are moving the needle in an industry with a whopping 15.6% CAGR that’s expected to hit $5 billion in just 2 years by 2023.
As a heavily inked journalist, this speaks to me on a whole new level, but I’ll let the internet speak for itself.
The Guiding Question:
What’s fueling the spike in the tattoo removal industry?
The Answer:
In a way, it’s a simple case of supply and demand.
More people have tattoos (over 50% of millennials have them, and 36% of 18-25-year-olds have them)
More people have disposable income
And more people want to get them removed (as of 2017, 26% of people either regret their tattoos or want them removed).
But attributing the increase in market growth to something as simple as “I regret getting a tattoo,” doesn’t do the story justice.
A study by Market Reports World stated “huge credits can be attributed to this factor in growing the tattoo removal market, as the number of people wanting to remove the tattoo [to get a] new one is quite high.”
That’s because two things are colliding right now:
It’s easier to get a tattoo removed now. Getting a tattoo removed has gotten increasingly cheaper (though still expensive and lengthy), more effective, less painful (lasers no longer damage surrounding tissue as much), and more accessible (particularly in the emerging economies of India and China).
Instagram popularized coverups. The platform did more than just popularize tattoos and bring them mainstream. It popularized entirely new tattoo genres, and more importantly, it brought attention and paying customers to the specialist cover-up artists in the field.
These two trends are what can fulfill the demand of people who crave to be a blank canvas again. Trayasion, the same Redditor from above elaborates:
The key here is that most people would assume the boom in the tattoo removal business means consumers are looking for only full removal.
In reality, partial removal has become increasingly popular as a way to facilitate high-quality cover-ups. That’s because many artists are uncomfortable inking large pieces without some form of lightening, since it can compromise the quality of their final piece.
The News Peg:
Interest in tattoo removal is relatively cyclical, but it’s hitting peak interest right now—something we haven’t seen in almost 5 years. This new wave of interest is likely what’s behind the expected explosive market growth in the industry over the next 2 years.
Why this story is worth pursuing
Because it’s an unexpected answer to what you’d think is an obvious question.
Everyone thinks they know the reason why people want tattoos removed. The expected answer is that they regret it.
The more interesting and changing-before-our-very-eyes answer is that they want even more of the thing they’re getting removed.
This is really just a way for tattoo aficionados to better appreciate something they love.
What we don't have answers to
It would be worth conducting a small study or series of interviews to quantify how many people getting removal are doing it for the explicit purpose of getting another tattoo. Based on our preliminary research, we think there’s a valid hypothesis to test here, but hard numbers can make or break this story for an editor.
Diverse sources worth interviewing
Speak with a cover-up artist like W.T.Norbert, and ask about their clientele. How many people come in explicitly looking to get a tattoo lightened and then reworked? Why do they say they want to do that?
Talk to a person currently going through the process of removal and coverup, like this person or this person. Go right to the horse’s mouth to get someone to walk you through their thinking as they take on such a massive time, financial, and physically grueling investment.
Chat with one of the many companies that specialize in tattoo removal, like GO in Allentown, PA. Often they’ll be able to speak to the number of clients who come in looking to remove a piece just enough in order to get a new one.
PUBLICATIONS TO PITCH TO
WNYC Radiolab
Radiolab (and possibly its sister podcast Freakonomics) love stories that pose simple questions but have unexpected answers. This pitch has just the kind of colorful characters you would need to bring it to life.
Vox, The Goods
The color and visual nature of this story, as well as its clear economic and consumer-focused angle, makes this an ideal bread and butter story for the Goods.
The Goods Editor: Meredith Haggerty at meredith.haggerty@vox.com
Brainwash Media is a digital space for black and brown youth and they specifically are looking for stories investigating changes in the tattoo industry.
Editorial desk: Ayanna McNeil at ayanna@brainwash.media and Briana Atkins at briana@brainwash.media
OTHER PITCHES IN THIS SPACE
The obvious other angle to explore is how the increase in tattoos among younger folks will lead to a long-term boom in the tattoo removal industry 10-15 years down the line. After all, someone’s got to regret all those tattoos they got as a young millennial.
There’s also the other overlooked side of tattoo removal—the increase in artists who are simply coverup experts. This makes sense as often coverups require an artist who 1) specifically knows how to do things like work with damaged skin, 2) decides how to draw something that can actually cover the current tattoo, and 3) makes sure they’re able to—on a technical level—make sure the ink can sit on an already inked canvas. How has the tattoo removal boom led to a boom in cover-up experts in the tattoo industry?
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
How Instagram revolutionized the tattoo industry
Top 7 Reasons People Remove Their Tattoos
Soliton plans to make a fortune off millennials who regret tattoos
Instagram is opening up the super-secretive world of tattoo artists
Why Do People Choose To Remove Their Tattoos? | AuthorityTattoo
The Market for Tattoo Removal, Enter Tattoo Removal Market
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