GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - It’s been four years since Amber Shepherd got her wrist tattoo. It's not that she regrets getting a tattoo, she just regrets how it was done.

"It was a Cancer symbol and it was done backwards. I researched a lot of cover ups, like ideas to change it so it would be OK, but it was just a really bad tattoo and it was done really horribly," she says.

The same can be said for Jeremy Blake, who got a little extra on his tattoo. "When he was doing it, it just felt good so I wasn't paying attention and he put the ones, I was like, 'oh, I didn't ask for that," says Blake.

Now the two are having some, or all of their tattoos lasered off.

"I can fade just about any tattoo, I cannot fade white, pink or yellow because it leaves a gray shadow on the skin," says Jackie Shepherd, with Re-Ink'd tattoo removal.

Re–Ink'd is the newest tattoo removal center in the Grand Valley. Shepherd started her business after looking for ways to fix one of her own tattoos. "I had a really bad tattoo. I had the Devil tattooed on my chest and I wanted it off really bad," she says.

Using a special laser, Shepherd basically explodes the ink particles below the skin, causing them to be slowly dissolved back into the body. Shepherd says, "Blacks and reds are the best. The darker the color, the easier they are to laser."

People who've had the procedure done say it feels like someone took a thick rubber band and snapped them across the skin. Shepherd says, "Or I've also heard it referred to as somebody throwing little splashes of bacon grease at your skin." But there are some risks, the laser can leave scars or grey skin tones where the tattoo used to be.

Complete tattoo removal does take time. A tattoo will start to fade two months after treatment and treatments can only be given every eight weeks. Shepherd says, "To fade a tattoo completely it takes between eight and 15 treatments."

That's for complete removal, but if you plan a cover up tattoo, fewer treatments are needed. That’s what Amber Shepherd is hoping for. She says, "I think I'm going to get the same thing done correctly."

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