When tattoo artist Brandon Bond heard about a new tattoo ink that could be removed with a single laser treatment, he wasn't just skeptical - he was ticked off. The Atlanta-based designer considers the work he has inked on everyone from rapper 50 Cent to champion boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. to be pieces of art, almost sacred, so marketing them as disposable was nothing short of an insult.

    But even as Bond scoffed at the ironically named Infinitink, which just became available this spring, he could relate to Americans' love-hate relationship with their body art. Cherished as symbols of independence and individuality, tattoos now adorn the flesh of a quarter of all adults under 50. Yet recent studies have also found that about a sixth of everyone who gets one winds up regretting it. Case in point: Bond sports two full sleeves' worth of intricate patterns, but admits there are a few designs on his arms that he'd like to erase altogether. "A lot of the stuff I had gotten as a youngster was very subpar," he says.

    With such conflicting sentiments in mind, Harvard dermatologist and professor Rox Anderson developed the biodegradable Infinitink by encapsulating the pigment in tiny plastic beads that dissolve more easily than regular ink when struck by a laser beam. But there was a problem: tattoo artists hated to use it because it was too thin （which made it look washed out） and the micropolymer beads were incredibly expensive, says Bond, who now works as a consultant for Nuvilex, which makes Infinitink.

    So the company decided to reformulate its ink and hired a chemical engineer from Dupont, who replaced the expensive beads with a technology, already used in ink jet printers to conserve ink, that helps smaller quantities of pigment create the same vibrant results as regular inks. Ultimately, come regret time, that means there's less ink that needs to be removed, which means less time spent getting zapped by a laser. With this revised formula, Infinitink tattoos still cost as much as 50% more than regular designs, but their removal is a bargain since it requires many fewer sessions - which typically cost $200 to $500 a pop - to shatter the ink into small pieces that get absorbed into the lymph nodes.

    While many industries, including tattooing, have suffered as a result of the economic downturn, tattoo removal is actually on the rise, says Dr. Amy Derick, a dermatologist in Barrington, Ill., who studies tattoo remorse. "It may be that people want a fresh start or are starting a new job," she says. Or it may be due to heartache or better judgment. Beverly Hills' dermatologist Will Kirby says that tattoo removal customers have doubled from 20 to 40% of his business over the past year. "We've seen quite an uptick. We're busier than ever," notes Kirby.

    According to a 2008 study in the Archives of Dermatology, women are more likely than men to want their tattoos removed, often due to negative reactions from others. "If there's a sexiness about it, women are often criticized," says dermatologist Derick. Removing ex-lovers' names is the most common request, says dermatologist Kirby, who has zapped such unfortunate choices as "Slippery When Wet" and "Try Me."

    Katrina McCoy, a nurse in Cherry Hill, N.J., who is in the process of having a butterfly tattoo with her name above it removed from her arm, says she has even opted out of getting anesthesia during the painful laser sessions, because, "I feel like it is a punishment for doing something retarded." If Infinitink works as advertised, such prolonged penance may no longer be the price for a simple change of heart.

    紋身藝術(shù)家Brandon Bond聽說有一種新的紋身墨水可以僅僅通過激光治療就去除掉，他對此不只是懷疑--他簡直要氣壞了。這個在亞特蘭大工作的紋身設(shè)計師將他紋在每個人身上的作品視為近乎神圣的藝術(shù)品，無論是饒舌歌手50 Cent還是拳擊手弗洛伊德·梅威瑟。所以把這些紋身作為一次性的商品來"銷售"完全是種侮辱。

    這種今年春天才出現(xiàn)的產(chǎn)品有個不無諷刺的名字"永恒之墨",但盡管Bond對它嗤之以鼻，他還是對美國人對人體藝術(shù)的愛恨交加報以理解的。如今紋身被視為獨立和個性的一種標(biāo)志， 有1/4的50歲以下人群都擁有自己的紋身。然而近期的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)這其中有1/6的人會后悔去紋身。比如說，雖然Bond常常對他布滿復(fù)雜花樣的雙臂炫耀不已，但他也承認自己很想去除其中的幾個紋樣。"我年輕的時候做了一些紋身是比較次的"他說到。

    懷著如此矛盾的心情，哈佛大學(xué)教授兼皮膚病學(xué)家Rox Anderson通過將粉狀顏料裝入很小的塑料珠子中，發(fā)明出了生物所能分解的"永恒之墨",這樣的顏料在遇到激光束時比普通的墨水更易溶解。但還有個問題： 因為這種顏料太稠了（看起來就像被洗掉了）而且它獨有的聚酯碳粉珠十分昂貴，紋身藝術(shù)家們都不太喜歡使用，Bond說道。他現(xiàn)在正在給生產(chǎn)"永恒之墨"的Nuvilex公司充當(dāng)顧問。

    所以該公司決定改良墨水配方，并聘請了來自杜邦公司的化學(xué)工程師，他用一種已經(jīng)運用于噴墨式打印機的技術(shù)取代了這種昂貴的珠子，它能使較少的粉狀顏料也能產(chǎn)生出和普通墨水一樣鮮明的效果。最后，如果遇上顧客后悔，就可以只去除較少的墨水，也意味著只要花較短的時間使用激光。使用這種改良配方后，用"永恒之墨"紋身還是比普通設(shè)計要高出50%,但是因為省去了分解淋巴結(jié)中的墨水所需要的一些程序，去除紋身的費用就比較低了--大概每個是200美元到500美元。

    來自Barrington研究去除紋身的皮膚病學(xué)家Amy Derick博士認為，當(dāng)包括紋身在內(nèi)的許多行業(yè)都在承受著經(jīng)濟下滑所帶來的苦果時，消除紋身卻變得炙手可熱，."也許是人們想重新開始或找份新工作"她說到。但也有可能是因為傷心或希望得到人們更好的評價。來自比佛利山莊的皮膚病學(xué)家Will Kirby說到要找他去除紋身的顧客在去年一年里已經(jīng)從20%到40% 翻了一番。"我們已經(jīng)迎來了一個事業(yè)的高峰，現(xiàn)在比以往任何時候都要忙。"她說到。

    根據(jù)《皮膚病學(xué)檔案》在2008年的研究，女性比男性更想要消除她們的紋身，這往往是因為來自他人的否定態(tài)度。"如果在紋身中有性的含義，女性往往會受到批判"皮膚病學(xué)家Derick指出。把前男友或前女友的名字去掉最常見，皮膚病學(xué)家Kirby說，他曾經(jīng)不幸地遇上這樣的選擇"Slippery When Wet"以及"Try Me".

    來自櫻桃山的護士Katrina McCoy正在去除手臂上的一個上面帶有自己名字的蝴蝶紋身，她說她決定在極度痛苦的激光去除過程中不使用麻醉藥，因為"我覺得這是對于自己做的蠢事的一種懲罰".如果"永恒之墨"能夠如它的廣告一樣有效的話，就沒必要因為一時的變心而遭受如此的罪了。