For anyone who takes a seat in the tattoo chair, the worst-case scenario would be a misspelling or mistake in the final product. Considering all the time and money that go into turning a tattoo into a reality, walking away with an instant case of tattoo regret doesn't exactly seem like the best return on investment. 

Unfortunately, unlike writing, painting or even sculpture, mistakes etched in ink are there to stay. After all, it's not like artists can whip out an eraser and give it another go. So what happens when you end up with an absent-minded artists and a disastrous design on your body? 

Tattoo mistakes take all shapes and sizes
There's a reason those who are interested in getting a tattoo should do their research when it comes to choosing a shop, an artist and even a design. It doesn't take much for tattoos to turn into bad tattoos. In fact, there are almost as many ways for a tattoo to go wrong as there are different designs out there.

All it takes is a quick perusal of the many tattoo blogs out there to see some of the most cringeworthy examples. Some tattoos turn out poorly because of the skill – or lack thereof – of the artist. Many an individual has walked into a shop with a portrait of a loved one and walked out with a poorly inked simulacrum that's more horror than homage. Sometimes, the afflicted individuals have nobody but themselves to blame. For example, Buzzfeed has no shortage of tattoos of all sorts of questionable subject matter, from pop culture references destined to fade into obscurity in a few months' time to inside jokes and puns that are far better suited to a one-time laugh at a bar than a permanent spot on your body.

A few of the most outrageous examples reflect what must surely be a failure on the part of both artist and individual – for example, did the artist misspell a common word in a tattoo, or did the client provide a design that was already inaccurate? And then there are those who don't necessarily have poor-quality tattoos, but who find themselves lamenting the placement of their face tattoo a few years down the road. 

Dealing with tattoo regret
The good news is for those on the receiving end of  these bad tattoos, they aren't stuck with the disastrous designs forever. One option people can pursue is that of a cover​-up tattoo – an artist literally tattoos something over top of the offending ink. While not always possible, cover​-up tattooing is still fairly common, with StatisticsBrain reporting that in 2012, around 5 percent of tattooed adults had covered up their ink in this fashion.

In some of the really bad cases, however, this may not be an option. If a tattoo is too dark, or done too deeply or too shallowly, there's a strong chance that the cover​-up process won't work. Another consideration, according to Times News, is that these corrective tattoos require a much larger surface area than the design they're going overtop of. Especially in an instance where the tattoo to be covered is particularly dark, clients will need to have plenty of space available.

Those who are sick of their tattoo altogether have another option in the form of laser tattoo removal. In fact, new technology, using a picosecond laser, zaps ink droplets under the skin so that they can be carried away by the body's immune processes. This new laser technology is more effective than previous removal options, takes fewer sessions and runs far less risk of damaging skin in the process.

PicoSure® is the latest technology for laser tattoo removal and offers faster and better removal in fewer treatments. PicoSure shatters ink into smaller, dust-like particles which are more efficiently absorbed by the body's natural processes. It is the first and only aesthetic picosecond laser that is FDA-cleared for the removal of tattoos. Visit www.picosurear.wpengine.com to learn more and find a PicoSure Practitioner near you.