Hair removal clinic lasers woman’s tattoo by mistake

What happens when the therapist in your laser hair removal session accidentally lasers over your tattoo?

It's not a hypothetical. This very thing happened to personal trainer Bronte Hill last year at Laser Clinics New Zealand in Takapuna.

The clinic's policy is to ask clients whether they have any tattoos before treatment. Bronte's had hers for a couple of years and she's a regular at the Takapuna branch.

Bronte says the therapist knew about the tattoo and covered the tattoo with her fingers at first, but then when she rolled over, says the therapist had forgotten about it because she didn't cover it.

"I think I was a little bit in shock," Bronte says.

"It was stinging quite a lot."

Ruth Nicholson, Course Director at the New Zealand Laser Training Institute says that tattoos should always be covered.

"It would be safer to put a white sticker or even a white towel over it because its more opaque and the light won't go through it," she says.

Laser Clinics says its policy is to cover the tattoo with a cloth. But in Bronte's case it wasn't.

Laser Clinics offered to cover the cost to repair the tattoo. They found an artist who quote $50 for the job. Bronte wanted it fixed by her original artist, who quoted $150 for the repair.

Because her tattoo was a fine line design, Bronte wanted it fixed by someone who was skilled in the art.

"Fine line is such an art and you have to be quite delicate and intricate with it," she says.

Laser Clinics wasn't budging, until Fair Go got involved.

It apologised for the incident and offered to pay the full $150.

It also said a thorough review was being done, and the therapist who conducted the procedure is no longer working at the clinic.

Ruth says more and more mishaps are happening with laser treatments. She says lasered over tattoos could be removed altogether, or could leave the client scarred.

"In some cases it'll just traumatise the tattoo but the ink will still be there underneath the skin," she says.

She also advises that if people feel they're being unfairly treated or unprofessionally cared for, to take it up with the clinic first so they know they've done wrong.

Customers can also lodge a complaint with the health and disability commissioner, or HDC.

In fact, in 2021 someone did complain to the HDC about a treatment they received from Laser Clinics Takapuna. She received burns to her face during a hair removal session and needed medical attention.

But Laser Clinics says Bronte's matter is completely unrelated to any previous incidents at the clinic that have been reported in the media and reassures that the Takapuna branch has been operated by new management since 2022.

Following the 2021 incident, the HDC's recommendations included further training for the therapist involved, and longer breaks for all clinic therapists, to help prevent stress. Laser Clinics told Fair Go that it’s taken the feedback on board to make sure 2021's incident doesn't happen again.

Bronte says her therapist was stressed and under pressure.

"During my appointment I had been talking to her and she said that she didn't usually work at that clinic and she was just covering because they were short staffed."