Tuler attempted to have his bulldog tattoo surgically removed last November. He now carries a thick pink scar just to the left of the tattoo.

Other clinics around the valley use their lasers for procedures other than tattoo removal. But InkLifters says lasers created for hair removal or skin spot removal will not work as effectively on tattoos.

"The thing that makes us unique is the technology," Carlston said. "It won't scar people, it won't cause bleeding and it effectively removes colors."

InkLifters removes some tattoos with more ease than others, depending on a number of factors.

"It depends on your skin type, how deep the ink is in the skin (and) what colors are present," McMillan said. "If you have any immune dysfunction, that could slow things down as well."

Sky-blue inks can only be removed by the Q-switched laser. Greens and blues are more difficult to remove. Red comes out "fairly well," and black and dark blue "are very easy to remove," McMillan said. Yellow and white provide a challenge to the tattoo zapper because of how much they resemble some skin pigment.

The pain of the procedure is just the opposite. Black and dark blue retain more heat from the beam, causing more pain, while lighter colors cause less. Tattoos 30 or 40 years old respond faster to treatment.

The removal process takes time and money. The average tattoo requires four to eight treatments before complete removal. Due to the condition of the skin after each session under the laser, the clinic requires that patients wait four to six weeks between each session. Full tattoo removal can cost anywhere from $891 to $14,040, depending on the size.

Brent Beck, an InkLifters patient, advised that people refrain from getting inked in the first place.

"It's painful and expensive getting them removed," Beck said.

However, the InkLifters Web site has links to tattoo parlors in town.

"We don't have a negative relationship with the providers," McMillan said. "A lot of people (coming to InkLifters) are either lightening or removing (the tattoo) to replace it with another one."

While InkLifters does not discourage people from being tattooed, it recommends that people try out temporary tattoos before making the decision to mark their bodies for life.

"We provide people with options," Carlston said. "We want people to have the choice to look the way they want to look."

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E-mail: amarshall@desnews.com