Love inks: Beach business offers clients chance to erase valentines past

Love is forever. Except when it isn't.

That's why staffers at Atlantic Laser Tattoo Removal have given people the chance to start erasing some of the evidence of their past relationships - just in time for Valentine's Day.

On Friday, they offered for free the first phase of tattoo removal to people inked with the name or likeness of an ex they'd rather forget.

"Every tattoo has a story, and every tattoo removal does as well," said John Delaney, the clinic's director and a certified laser specialist. They advertised the service on Craigslist.

A study reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology in 2006 found that, among people ages 18 to 50, 24 percent said they had a tattoo.

Seventeen percent of those people had considered getting it removed.

Delaney said a lot of people have been waiting a long time to get their tattoos removed - or to even talk about them.

"Honestly, I was just, like, brainwashed," said Amanda Johnson, 21.

She said she and her then-boyfriend, Jarell, got matching tattoos in Norfolk about three years ago.

Since their breakup about a year later, however, Johnson hasn't been as fond of the red heart tattoo that bears Jarell's name on the right side of her neck.

She also wants to get rid of another tattoo of his name on her right hand.

Her fiancee, Chris Ellison, doesn't like them, either, Johnson said.

"He doesn't want them in our wedding pictures," she said.

An upcoming marriage also prompted 25-year-old Davina Stringer to remove the cross on her lower back.

She got the tattoo about six years ago with her then-boyfriend, who got a matching one between his shoulder blades.

"It was kind of one of those spur-of-the-moment, you-think-it's-going-to-last-forever kind of things," Stringer said.

About six months later, they broke up.

These days, Stringer has a new boyfriend and her ex is engaged - to her sister. It would make things a whole lot easier not to have the tattoo, a constant reminder of the earlier relationship, she said.

The removal process takes time and can be expensive.

Treatments to remove a small tattoo - two inches by two inches - cost $160 each at Atlantic Laser Tattoo Removal. Large tattoos - six by six inches - cost $360 per session.

It can take six to 10 sessions to remove a professional tattoo, Delaney said. The entire process can take about a year.

Brian Battenfeld of Portsmouth said he's willing to take the time.

About seven years ago, he and his future wife, Brittany, had lucky horseshoes inked onto their ring fingers just before they eloped.

He also got her name inscribed on his right forearm with an image of a busty, raven-haired woman with devil horns.

Now they're getting divorced.

The sooner Battenfeld, 26, can get rid of the horseshoe and her name, the quicker he can put the marriage behind him, he said.

He's also got some practical concerns about the removal.

Battenfeld hasn't started dating yet, but he has talked to some girls.

The first or second thing he said they ask him is: "Who's Brittany?"

"I'll probably fill it in eventually with the next girl," Battenfeld joked. "No, definitely not. Not making that mistake again."

As for Jim Patterson, he decided to surprise his then-girlfriend, who attended Western Branch High School, with a tattoo on his lower back in honor of the school's mascot: the Bruin.

"It was a first-true-love kind of thing," said Patterson, 29. "It actually ended not long after I got the tattoo."

He went with a friend, who counseled him not to get her name. Patterson compromised, using telephone keypad numbers that corresponded to the name of his now-ex, instead of the actual letters. The numbers 2,6,6,3 on his lower back correspond to A N N E.

Patterson said, "If anyone asks me about it, I say it's my Social Security number."

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com