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.

    纹身艺术家Brandon Bond听说有一种新的纹身墨水可以仅仅通过激光治疗就去除掉，他对此不只是怀疑--他简直要气坏了。这个在亚特兰大工作的纹身设计师将他纹在每个人身上的作品视为近乎神圣的艺术品，无论是饶舌歌手50 Cent还是拳击手弗洛伊德·梅威瑟。所以把这些纹身作为一次性的商品来"销售"完全是种侮辱。

    这种今年春天才出现的产品有个不无讽刺的名字"永恒之墨",但尽管Bond对它嗤之以鼻，他还是对美国人对人体艺术的爱恨交加报以理解的。如今纹身被视为独立和个性的一种标志， 有1/4的50岁以下人群都拥有自己的纹身。然而近期的调查发现这其中有1/6的人会后悔去纹身。比如说，虽然Bond常常对他布满复杂花样的双臂炫耀不已，但他也承认自己很想去除其中的几个纹样。"我年轻的时候做了一些纹身是比较次的"他说到。

    怀着如此矛盾的心情，哈佛大学教授兼皮肤病学家Rox Anderson通过将粉状颜料装入很小的塑料珠子中，发明出了生物所能分解的"永恒之墨",这样的颜料在遇到激光束时比普通的墨水更易溶解。但还有个问题： 因为这种颜料太稠了（看起来就像被洗掉了）而且它独有的聚酯碳粉珠十分昂贵，纹身艺术家们都不太喜欢使用，Bond说道。他现在正在给生产"永恒之墨"的Nuvilex公司充当顾问。

    所以该公司决定改良墨水配方，并聘请了来自杜邦公司的化学工程师，他用一种已经运用于喷墨式打印机的技术取代了这种昂贵的珠子，它能使较少的粉状颜料也能产生出和普通墨水一样鲜明的效果。最后，如果遇上顾客后悔，就可以只去除较少的墨水，也意味着只要花较短的时间使用激光。使用这种改良配方后，用"永恒之墨"纹身还是比普通设计要高出50%,但是因为省去了分解淋巴结中的墨水所需要的一些程序，去除纹身的费用就比较低了--大概每个是200美元到500美元。

    来自Barrington研究去除纹身的皮肤病学家Amy Derick博士认为，当包括纹身在内的许多行业都在承受着经济下滑所带来的苦果时，消除纹身却变得炙手可热，."也许是人们想重新开始或找份新工作"她说到。但也有可能是因为伤心或希望得到人们更好的评价。来自比佛利山庄的皮肤病学家Will Kirby说到要找他去除纹身的顾客在去年一年里已经从20%到40% 翻了一番。"我们已经迎来了一个事业的高峰，现在比以往任何时候都要忙。"她说到。

    根据《皮肤病学档案》在2008年的研究，女性比男性更想要消除她们的纹身，这往往是因为来自他人的否定态度。"如果在纹身中有性的含义，女性往往会受到批判"皮肤病学家Derick指出。把前男友或前女友的名字去掉最常见，皮肤病学家Kirby说，他曾经不幸地遇上这样的选择"Slippery When Wet"以及"Try Me".

    来自樱桃山的护士Katrina McCoy正在去除手臂上的一个上面带有自己名字的蝴蝶纹身，她说她决定在极度痛苦的激光去除过程中不使用麻醉药，因为"我觉得这是对于自己做的蠢事的一种惩罚".如果"永恒之墨"能够如它的广告一样有效的话，就没必要因为一时的变心而遭受如此的罪了。