August 4, 2002 -- Do you think right about now, soon-to-be-divorced Angelina Jolie is regretting her decision to get estranged husband's Billy Bob's name tattooed all over her arm? Well, she is not the only one living through tattoo regrets.

According to the American Society of Dermatological surgery, over 50% of the ten million Americans who get a tattoo eventually want it removed. Reasons? Leaving a gang or just plain getting bored are reasons for wanting to remove tattoos, but break-ups are the number one reason to head to the dermatologists office - and luckiliy for Angelina, getting rid of her tattoo can prove to be just as easy as getting rid of Billy Bob.

Today, although most dermatological surgeons caution that that complete tattoo removal is not fully possible, laser surgery for the removal of tattoos has been proven effective.

The degree of success for tattoo removal depends upon several factors, including size, location, the individual's ability to heal, how the tattoo was applied and how long it has been in place. For example, a tattoo applied by a more experienced artist may be easier to remove since the pigment was evenly injected in the same level of the skin. New tattoos may also be more difficult to remove than old ones.

Before lasers became popular for tattoo removal starting in the late 1980s, removal involved mostly the use of dermabrasion, where the skin is sanded to remove the surface and middle layers. Excision was a popular technique as well, where the where the dermatological surgeon removes the tattoo with a scalpel and closes the wound with stitches. (in some cases involving large tattoos, a skin graft from another part of the body may be necessary.)

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