A friend of mine tattoos in my city and we were talking about this a few weekends ago. He mentioned three related things that contribute to removals he’s aware of.
Tattooing got immensely popular and a lot of people who shouldn’t not have taken on apprentices took on apprentices. The quality of apprenticeships dropped and artists were getting put on skin way before they were ready. Many artists never learned proper technique or placement.
Styles changed so people were getting their first tattoos in visible places. When he started tattooing, artists wouldn’t do a first tattoo somewhere visible unless the client had a very very good reason. It always took dialogue. Now you can walk into a shop, point to flash and get it out on your neck or hand.
And finally, realism hit tattoos.
So in his opinion. You take a lot of artists who shouldn’t have been putting ink into grapefruits not skin. Put them to them to work on highly visible realistic looking art on people who don’t know enough about tattoo to know whether they’re making a mistake. And you end up with a lot of people staring at visible art that didn’t heal properly, with blown out lines and poor placement.
I didn’t get tattooed until after another good friend had finished his apprenticeship- I’m very glad I waited because I love my art and will slowly keep getting more. But I feel bad for people who fell into that trap of getting an unqualified artist to put bad art on their bodies.