Underneath the rose-shaped tattoo covering Elizabeth Lara’s ribs is a tale of heartbreak that convinced her of one thing in life: couples tattoos are mistakes that sooner or later pay off.
Seven out of 10 broken tattoos are removed with a laser, says Samantha Guevara, founder of the MissInk Tattoo Removal Clinic.
The data of tattoo artist Josafatt Medellín Ramírez is similar, from ten pairs of tattoos he does between eight and nine will be covered by himself once the love ends.
Eternal love
Elizabeth was in love but not convinced to get a tattoo with her boyfriend. He had been in a relationship for eight months when he suggested getting his initials tattooed, and so was the insistence that he yield to pressure out of love.
“Now I realize it was very early, but in love and young you do crazy things. I wasn’t sure, but it convinced me and I said: ‘nothing will happen, this will be forever, we love each other’ she said in an interview with Efe this Saturday before Valentine’s Day.
The initials of both were reflected in a tattoo that read “E + E” and both promised never to erase them.
Two years later, the relationship ended abruptly despite Elizabeth’s refusal to part ways.
After seeing the tattoo on his rib, it caused a lot of shame, pain and anger. “Every time I got out of the bath I looked in the mirror and said ‘oh no, how stupid’,” he says.
The promise to keep the tattoo forever was first broken by her ex-boyfriend, who covered the memory with a skull, “as if to say this was the death of this,” prompting Elizabeth to do the same. .
Unlike the “death” that portrayed her ex, she chose a “freshly cut open” rose that signified her rebirth.
“This covered up something that hurt me so much and it was like a rebirth. Every time I see the rose, it reminds me of the whole process that, despite all the bad things, served me well,” says the young woman who does not recommend to show love with tattoos.
A curse
Josafatt Medellín is one of the few tattoo artists who dares to cover up tattoos.
While most of the tattoos he covers have nothing to do with love regrets, he has done several couples tattoos and removed almost the same number of them.
“The truth is I’ve covered a lot of names and most of them are my clients, they come to get tattoos and I say ‘are you sure?’ and I bet they will return to be mated in a month, and they will return a month later, ”he says.
Jehoshaphat, who has been tattooing for ten years, is responsible for the tattoos that Belinda wears in her video “Love at first sight” and the time he spent in the medium trying to convince his clients not to like couple tattoo, but he always loses the fight.
“I tell them it’s a curse that they tattoo their partner’s name or initials because everything is going well, they tattoo it and everything goes down. It’s a curse,” he explains.
Temporary tattoos
Samantha Guevara had such a large geisha tattooed on her hip that it was impossible to get a new tattoo on it. After years of searching and visiting the best doctors in the United States, he found laser technology to remove tattoos.
Now she is committed to correcting mistakes like this in her MissInk clinics and says that her work has come to know her funny stories that she somehow loves to be a part of.
“When I’m in the clinics, I listen to really funny things. There was a girl who was going to marry Luis, and Pedro had a tattoo on her rub. She told us, ‘My future husband pays for everything they have to do, but Get this name off me first, from the wedding, ”he recalls.
Although there were previously more women who asked for the tattoo to be removed with a laser, Guevara assures that the number of men has increased and while he does not recommend people to tattoo in love, he always offers them solutions.
“It’s a mistake people can make and can be fixed. To all the loved ones who are going to tattoo that is not in white ink because it will not be removed,” he warns.
A memory without resentment
But not everyone tries to erase their bitter tattoos. Dafne got a tattoo along with her high school boyfriend at the age of 18 and although the relationship ended, she never crossed her head to cover or remove the tattoo as she managed to give it new meaning.
“It was the first time that I fell in love with someone and they do things like that out of love. We tattoo something over each other,” he says.
His tattoo is a pink lotus flower from which a diamond sprouts.
“The meaning of the flower is pure love and the diamond means it is indestructible. It was an indestructible love, I spent about four and a half years with that person and now we even get along,” he says.
Despite ending their relationship, Dafne sees the tattoo without resentment as it no longer means the same as it did in the beginning.
“Besides that I did it out of love, now I see it as a good phase in my life where I first felt what it is like to be in love, I don’t think about him every time I see my tattoo,” she says.