tattoo removal

Legacy Tattoo Removal was opened by co-owner Madi Rawson as a way of honouring her mentor, Ben Alway, who died earlier this year

A new tattoo removal shop will carry on the legacy of a local “Godfather” in the field.

Madi Rawson started her laser tattoo removal career under the mentorship of Ben Alway, whom she worked with for seven years before he died in March. She opened Legacy Tattoo Removal earlier this month, in the same building as Urge 2 Tattoo at 6551 111 St., to honour Alway and continue his work.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Don't have an account? Create Account

“Unfortunately, it’s born of tragedy. I would have worked for Ben for the rest of my life if he had not passed away. I was committed to him,” says Rawson, Legacy’s co-owner and president. “We were Bonnie and Clyde in a lot of ways. We really balanced each other in the laser field and we really helped each other learn and grow.”

Rawson says Alway’s teenage son approached her at his dad’s wake to ask if she could train him in laser tattoo removal, allowing him to follow in his dad’s footsteps. At that moment, Rawson became determined to create an environment where she could provide that opportunity one day.

“I would call (Alway) a Godfather of tattoo removal. He was a rebel with a laser and he really wanted to test the boundaries of what was capable, what was safe, what would deliver the best results,” she says. “It was amazing to learn with him and alongside him.”

Tattoo removal was once a feared process with good reason, as early technology was painful and inefficient, leading to numerous horror stories.

But the mainstreaming of tattoos has led to an explosion in demand for removal, creating its own multimillion-dollar industry. An Infiniti Research report from August projects the tattoo removal market will grow by more than $117 million US from 2022-2027.

Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Headline News will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

While tattoos used to signal rebelliousness and were looked down upon by certain segments of society, a Pew Research Centre Study last month found 41 per cent of American adults under age 30 now have at least one tattoo, as do 46 per cent of those aged 30-49. Even 66 per cent of untattooed adults said seeing a tattoo on someone else “leaves them with neither a positive nor negative impression of that person.”

But along with the loss of stigma comes regret — the Pew survey found about a quarter of those people have a tattoo they wish they didn’t have.

Thankfully, technology has rapidly improved along with the demand. Twenty years ago, Rawson says, people would leave studios bleeding with pustules and scarring, due to poor technology and little know-how in the field. Today, picking a reputable technician is enough to avoid those horrors.

“If it’s a small tattoo, most of my clients leave the studio giggling. They’re quite pleased with how little sensation and pain they experienced,” says Rawson, who has an educational background in science, and worked in mental health and addictions counseling before changing careers in 2016.

The PicoWay laser system she uses works with photoacoustic energy, “so it basically slaps the tattoo apart into tiny particles,” leaving it to your immune system to slowly flush out the ink, she explains. Once it’s healed, in most cases it will be impossible to tell the tattoo ever existed.

“If you do the right aftercare, most of the heals are actually very easy to manage. Maybe a day, an evening of some discomfort, and the next day, sometimes you forget you’ve done it.”

Carmen VanderHeiden Brodie, co-founder and VP of clinical operations at Removery, a company that runs 31 tattoo removal facilities across North America, says when she started 13 years ago, only nanosecond devices were on the market — as opposed to picosecond — which made for a slower and more painful process. Before that, it was common to use millisecond machines, which were even slower and designed for laser hair removal, leaving far messier results.

VanderHeiden Brodie says her company has seen a steady increase in demand, and the reasons clients give for seeking tattoo removal vary.

“Whether it’s, ‘I’ve grown into a big-kid job and now I need that tattoo removed,’ to, ‘There’s a change in relationship, I really can’t have this name on me anymore,’ most of it’s just growth and change,” she says.

Some people don’t want to clear their skin of tattoos but rather make space to upgrade them with better or trendier art by a qualified artist.

“Coming out of the pandemic, we had a huge surge in people having tattooed themselves and wanting them removed, so that also spiked our numbers,” she says.

But some of the reasons go more than skin deep.

Alway offered sliding scale and pro-bono work for people who wanted a fresh start after leaving a domestic violence situation, leaving the prison system, growing out of hateful or gang-related symbols, or seeking removal of track marks or radiation dots.

Rawson will continue that work with her shop’s New Legacy Program as a tribute to Alway, who she says was “an incredibly generous man.”

“People really appreciate being able to live comfortably in their skin and it didn’t occur to me that (tattoo removal) would be as meaningful as it really apparently is,” Rawson says. “This is my life, this is my career. This is what I’m committed to.”

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

To contribute to the conversation, you need to be logged in. If you are not yet registered, create your account now - it's FREE.