A report carried out by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) has found that almost one in five people who undergo the procedure of having a tattoo or getting a body piercing are at risk of being burned or contracting a serious infection. With risks ranging from swelling on the skin to infections that include HIV and hepatitis, the need for medical negligence solicitors to become involved in claimsis becoming increasingly common in the body modification industry.
A gap that exists in the law means that a number of tattooists who offer the procedure are in fact not qualified in infection control and are therefore putting their customers at risk, leading to an increase in tattoo compensation claims. If you are unhappy with a tattoo that you have received, then one of the most important first steps is to record photographic evidence of it. This is useful for a number of reasons. Firstly, you will be able to keep track of the healing process or establish whether the reaction is getting any worse. If you need to seek professional medical help, this will give them a good idea as to the severity of your condition and how to progress forward with treatment. Secondly, you will also be able to put forward a stronger claim if you can provide proof of what the tattoo looked like in the period of time immediately after having it done. If you don’t do this, there is a chance that the tattoo artist will try and claim that you have sustained other injuries that are unrelated to the tattoo process and your medical negligence claim will be significantly weakened.
If you are also unhappy with how your tattoo ultimately looks, there are some options for you to explore. These options are expensive, so you will likely want to have already settled your medical negligence claim before pursuing them.
If you wish that you’d never got a tattoo at all, then you might just want to get rid of it and opt for laser tattoo removal. This process generally costs about ten times the amount that the tattoo will originally have cost but may be worth it if you truly regret the marks that are on your skin. The procedure involves sending light energy deep into the epidermis where the ink is sitting. The energy breaks it up into lots of smaller fragments, that the body’s immune system then finds easier to break down and eventually leave the skin clear.
Alternatively, the more artistic option might be to design an alternative cover-up for the offending tattoo. This can work for people who still want to have a tattoo, but who want it to more closely reflect their individual tastes in ways that the original one didn’t. It is worth considering that a cover-up may mean that the tattoo has to be much bigger, or that you will have to incorporate parts of the original tattoo into the design of the new one.
Having a tattoo that you’re unhappy with is a really horrible situation, and if it has also caused you pain then you can be left wondering why you ever decided to get it in the first place. Contacting medical negligence solicitors can be a positive step in getting the compensation that you will need to amend the tattoo and be happier with the situation.
