Tattoos are supposed to be permanent and personal. But what happens when you outgrow them?

Tattoos are supposed to be permanent and personal. But what happens when you outgrow them?

Charlotte Ahern goes to monthly appointments to have her tattoos removed.

There’s no magic eraser for life’s messy canvas, as 22-year-old Charlotte Ahern could tell you firsthand if she wasn’t holding her breath through the pain.

Once a month, Ms. Ahern sits in a dentist-type chair, dons protective glasses and cranks the volume on her noise-cancelling headphones, usually to Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig In the Sky.

She squeezes a stress ball as if she’s strangling a poisonous snake to endure what feels like hot, rapid-fire rubber-band snaps on her skin, while a technician traces a laser along the ink on her arms and chest for 45 long minutes.

The Zimmer – named for the company that makes it – fo