Show Notes
Naen from Grapevine Tattoo joins Billy to talk about removing several small tattoos in and around the face, ears, and neck, including a queen of clubs she got at 17 and a piece done inside her ear during her apprenticeship. They compare pain levels across the different spots, discuss why she barely reacted afterward, and revisit her brow removal from a year ago that has kept fading over time. Naen also shares why the memories attached to certain tattoos pushed her to have them removed.
Topics Covered
Face and ear tattoo removal with the PicoWay
Naen had tattoos treated on the side of her face, inside her ear, and behind each ear in a single smooth session. She found the face tattoo removal far more comfortable than expected, with no ballooning or cauliflower ear.
Why the neck spot hurt most
Of all the areas treated, the small tattoo behind the ear near the neck was the most painful, with an odd stinging sensation. The face and inside of the ear felt much more manageable by comparison.
Aftercare and why icing matters
Naen kept her aftercare simple and let her body heal on its own. Billy explains that icing is not only for pain and swelling, it also helps cool the tissue down after treatment.
How permanent makeup keeps fading
Naen removed her brows a year ago in one session and assumed the fading would plateau. Instead, her permanent makeup removal has continued to lighten over time, with the remaining tail far more faded than it was six months ago.
The memories behind a tattoo
Naen wanted the piece inside her ear gone because it was done by a former mentor during a difficult apprenticeship, and it is the tattoo people comment on most. Many clients come in for the same reason, wanting to remove the memory attached to a tattoo rather than just the tattoo itself.
Fading for a cover, not full removal
Rather than removing the ear tattoo completely, Naen plans to fade it enough to place new dot work over it. Partial fading is a common approach when the goal is a fresh piece rather than clear skin.
Full Transcript
Even though I know that that's true with body tattoos, I was under the impression that after a certain point with permanent makeup, it just kind of plateaus and stops fading.
I did one session with you guys. It went so well. Like it was so chill and it didn't hurt at all. The way they faded was like so flawless.
Just so you know, like when we tell you to ice it, it's not only for pain and swelling. It's just to cool down the tissue a little bit, too. I definitely expected my ear to blow up like a balloon and it like didn't at all. Like I even forgot that I got the removal that day.
A lot of our clients come in and that's one of the main reasons why people want to get tattoos removed. It's because the memory associated with the tattoo.
I'm happy to express myself with my tattoos where they can be hidden but also at the same time like still look classy when I go out.
Luckily, there is the option to remove it. What would you do if it if there wasn't that option? You just have to live with it. Welcome back to the Faded Podcast.
Today we have tattooer Naen with us. Naen goes by the name of Cranky Goblin.
I do
on on Instagram.
Are you on other socials besides Instagram? I mean, I have Tik Tok, but I usually just like use it to post like fashiony stuff, and I like like to beef with people in the comments, so it's not really professional.
Okay. So, you're mainly on Instagram.
Mainly on Instagram.
That's the main that's that's mainly where you post your work.
Yes, definitely.
Okay.
And uh what studio is it that you work at?
I work at Grapevine Tattoo. It's in New Westminster. It's a all female studio. All super gorgeous, amazing women that are really talented.
It's probably my favorite shop by far I've ever worked at, to be honest. Don't see myself leaving anytime soon.
Okay, so all female staff.
Do you have male clientele or is it mainly women?
No, a lot of male clientele actually, which is like I wouldn't say surprising, but I'd say we kind of have like an even mix of like men and women for our clientele because all of our artists there have like a different style of tattooing. So, we all kind of bring like every walk of life, which is super cool.
Okay. So, um Naen was a client. Well, she she actually when did you come? You came to us uh to get your brows removed.
When was it? Last year.
Literally exactly a year ago, I'd say.
Okay. A year ago. And at that time, I don't think we knew each other.
No, not yet.
but um we met again at the Vancouver tattoo convention.
Yes.
And that's when we kind I kind of put two and two together that you were the same person who had come in to get your brows removed.
Yeah.
Yeah. Was it one session that we did?
I did one session with you guys. Um it went so well. Like it was so chill and it didn't hurt at all. Uh the way they faded was like so flawless.
really.
I got really lucky. I feel like a lot of people talk about there being orange pigment. I think just the girl who had done my brows just used a lot of cooler tones and it faded really nicely. Like they're pretty much gone after one session.
I could use one more. Um but I figured I would wait a long time in between, you know, with summer and obviously I don't know if people know this, but like as sometimes the longer you wait, the more the tattoo fades. So the ink just keeps like metabolizing and then bye. See you.
Have you have you noticed that your brows have faded more over time?
I was under the impression that after a certain point with permanent makeup, it just kind of plateaus and stops fading.
Honestly, over the past year, I definitely have noticed it fade even more. like there still was a bit of a tail um on one side when you did it and that tail is like far more faded than it was like six months ago which is crazy because I've been like looking at photos of myself and I've noticed like such a difference.
Okay, we'll have to take another look uh next time you come in.
Yeah.
So, when we were at the tattoo convention, we we kind of were chatting a little bit
and you said that you had some tattoos that you wanted to remove.
Yes. and uh you were here last week and we kind of zapped those and then that's when we decided to have you in here to talk about a little bit.
So we did a couple tattoos behind your ears
and my ear
and we did one in your ear too. Which one was the most painful one? I'm sure that's what people are going to want to want to know first.
Definitely the like neck behind the ear was the worst. It was so like such a small tattoo, but it almost like was stinging in like a weird place in my head. I feel like I don't know how to explain it, but it definitely was the most painful. I feel like the face and the ear was like so chill.
I was expecting this to be the most chill.
That's right. We did one on the side of your face, too.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, we did the face the inside your ear and then one on each side behind your ear as well.
Yes.
So, yeah, that that was a pretty smooth uh session, though. It didn't seem like anything was super aggravated when you left.
No, I definitely expected my ear to blow up like a balloon and it like didn't at all. Like I even forgot that I got the removal that day. Also, maybe I'm just like not the type of person that like over cares for I never overare for my tattoos. I never overare.
Like even when I did my brows, I'm not going to lie, I didn't follow fully. I kind of just let my body heal itself a little bit. So I just iced it a bit and then kind of let it do its thing afterwards. And I feel like that's why the reaction was a little better.
But that's just my body personally.
yeah, that's great. If you know that you don't need to ice it extra or do anything overboard, then it's fine to just kind of do what you think is best.
Um, just so you know, like when we tell you to ice it, it's not only for pain
and swelling, it's just to cool down the tissue a little bit, too. So, I think it's really important when you leave here, even if it doesn't hurt or if you're not worried about it swelling up, like ballooning up or whatever. Um, I'm glad that didn't happen. I I actually thought you were going to have like cauliflower ear.
I was picturing
Have you seen those MMA fighters with big cauliflower ear? I thought for sure you were going to have that cuz that's the exact spot where the tattoo was.
Yeah.
And there's little blood vessels in there. If those things break, they're just going to balloon up. But luckily that didn't happen cuz that wouldn't look too cute on you. No, I actually expected that.
That's kind of why I like didn't book any clients that day. I didn't like book any work that day. I like wore my hair down, but like it was super chill. I didn't even feel like hot to touch after too, which was nice.
I was like expecting it to be so much worse.
Can you tell me is there a story behind any of those tattoos?
There's always a story.
there's always a story with the tattoo you're removing. Um, I guess the one on my face right here.
Mhm.
Um, I got that when I was 17. I don't know if anybody remembers Tumblr. Do you know what Tumblr is?
Yeah, the uh it was a social media.
It was actually like a a blogging
It was. Yeah.
It was like a blogging uh platform, I guess you could call it.
Yes. I saw this girl on Tumblr when I was like 17 and she had this like queen of hearts on the side of her face in red and I was like it's so cool. Had no tattoos by the way. Maybe one.
Maybe one on my rib. Um about like maybe an inch or two and I was like I want that.
fake ID I go in
with my friends and I was like I want this but like I don't want it in red because I didn't want red ink. I was like, I just want like a queen of clubs. Like, I love that. So fun.
Like, I thought it was so cool. And I got it and it's just been there.
it's on your face.
It's on my face.
I have nothing against face tattoos, but somebody who has no tattoos at all or just one tiny one on your ribs, I don't think that's the order of operations that we're looking for when when we're giving tattoos out. Mm- This guy just wanted my money for sure. Like he was like desperado for sure. Didn't care.
did you get any blowback from your family familia?
Um, so I was like a really rebellious teenager and I come from like a pretty I'd say like I wouldn't say too conservative, but conservative enough European family and like oh my god they were furious. But like my mom is a smart lady, you know? She never like grounded me. She never like reprimmended me because she knew I was going to have to like reap what I sew in the future.
It's kind of like when I got my gauges, like I had gauges as a teenager and then at 24 I had to like pay to get them sewn up.
did you do that?
Yeah, I did.
How was that process? I've seen I've heard and seen a lot of people get it done.
Okay. So, it was the I've had plastic surgery.
Okay.
Um it was like the most chill procedure I've ever had in my life. They just numb it and then it's kind of I'm disgusting so I thought it was cool. But they like you can hear them cut your ear open but it's so numb.
and then they just like literally cut your skin off and sew it up. So chill and it took like less than an hour.
Okay.
noses too. What else? Lips.
Yeah. Everybody has like whatever. If you love it, like do it up.
Yeah.
I did it as a teenager and I came into some beautiful family heirlooms as an adult and I was like, I can't wear any of these. Like what? I have like these huge holes in my ears and these are like beautiful go real gold pieces that I cannot wear.
yeah,
I mean if I have any advice to anybody who does want to get their ears sewn up, like don't go see a surgeon in downtown Vancouver anywhere because I got quoted three grand
for two ears. " Like $1,500 per ear is like for an hour procedure that you're not going under for. It's not that intense. Like what?
I like called out in Abbottzford to this like well-known, he's a good plastic surgeon, too. " It's like, it was like 800 for both ears.
Oh, sweet.
But I was like, damn. Like, I just saved like a couple thousand dollar.
Yeah.
You know, not searching around to find someone good and who wasn't going to scam me because a lot of uh plastic surgeons downtown were like, they saw the opportunity and they ran with it.
Yeah. Did you were you able to see a book or some type of portfolio of the person's work?
I heard about this guy cuz he did my friend's boobs and I was like, "Okay, well her boobs look great." Like literally changed
like breast implants.
Yeah. And I was like, "Okay, they look great.
I'm sure he can slice and dice open an ear."
Yeah.
And so I like looked at some of his other work like lipo and like basically everything else that he had done and it looked great. So I was like, you know, if this guy can like literally like tummy tuck someone who's have a had a child before, like he can cut open my ear. " And they look flawless after.
There's a lot I think there's a a skill, like a real artistic skill in suturing to suture things properly.
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It's like the same reason when I went to get a nose job, I went the doctor I went to, he does like facial reconstruction for people who have been in car accidents at VGH. " Like, he builds faces.
Okay.
I'm like, "I'll always do my research before I do anything like here up."
Yeah. So, you decided you want to get the one on your face removed. And then why did you want to get the one inside your ear? Because that seemed like a much less kind of obvious tattoo.
Are you just trying to get rid of everything neck up?
Uh that a little bit, but um I'm going to talk a little here, but it's okay. Like I openly talk My mentor did that tattoo um and he was a good artist until he decided to dabble in paraphernalia. And when he did the tattoo, he was kind of on a down slope.
Okay,
I guess is the nice way to say it. And it was just janky. Like, it was janky. It wasn't done well.
I didn't enjoy my apprenticeship, by the way. I'm sure you've heard that from a lot of people in the industry.
I like don't really want to look at them. I'm like I don't want to like associate memories and whatnot. Like obviously my hand and my arm will get there eventually. I like my hand.
That was good times. But like sometimes tattoos are attached to memories and like that was just like not a moment in time. So I just wanted to get rid of that for sure.
And like it's the tattoo people comment on the most on my body too.
The one inside your ear.
The one inside my ear. Out of all the tattoos, I have my back done. I have my leg done. I have my arm done.
Like I'm my freaking armpit done. And the one people comment on the most is that one. And I hate it so much. So I just wanted it gone.
I was like, everyone's bringing it up around me. I don't want to talk about it anymore.
If it's a bad memory, and you know, we hear a lot of our clients come in and that's one of the main reasons why people want to get tattoos removed.
that doesn't matter. It's the fact that that memory is on their body and they want to get rid of it. So, you know, it happens and I totally get that.
Yeah, it's uh it's tough because I feel like sometimes, you know, you can have such a large piece, too, and like you just look at it every day and especially I felt more affected by other people commenting on it. It wasn't even like cuz I can't really see it. It's in my ear, but it's the fact that other people comment comment on it all the time and then I think about it and I'm like, I don't want to think about this. Just get it off.
Just just remove it. And luckily the options there where you can just come in and get it blasted. That tattoo is probably going to fade pretty quickly.
honestly I my kind of plan with that situation is definitely I probably just want to fade it enough to put some like beautiful dot work in there or something.
I feel like
I think you would have to remove it like really fade it significantly in order to cover that back up because it's a small area.
It's so tiny and I have tiny little ears. If you blast over that tattoo, you're going to have to either go really dark or have it light enough. And and if you have the option to lighten it with a few sessions, you might as well just do that.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to going to do that. I I might not put something over it. I just like love the idea of an ear tattoo.
I just want it done, right? Like even I have this little one on my neck. Um and I had it's actually a cover up, which is so funny cuz it's like so tiny. But this girl I had worked with forever ago.
She did a tiny little star there. It didn't turn out great. I ended up getting it covered with like some dot work because I still loved the concept of the tattoo. It just wasn't done well.
I would be down to just have someone with better vibes do it for me.
Okay.
Yeah.
So you have a lot more tattoos that you want to remove and that like the the head is not the only area.
I wouldn't say remove like I hate my sleeve.
Do you?
I hate it so much.
I was going to say I hate it too. No, I'm just kidding.
I I really do hate it. It's It's not the top part that I hate. Um it's the bottom part just cuz same thing. Mentor did it.
I don't like it. Um he was relapsing while he did the bottom part and like his other junior artist had to like come in and save the day and fix the tattoo halfway through the through the appointment. And I just like every time I look down at it, I'm like, "Oh my god, I hate it so much. how much I hate it.
So, I don't know if I'm going to remove it. I might blast over it. I haven't decided what I want to do cuz it's such a large surface area. I'm like, I'm scared.
Yeah, you might as well just start chipping away, like light lightening it up,
start a couple sessions, and then you have time. That and that's what I always tell people, too. When you when you're deciding if you want to cover it or completely remove it, you might as well start it. And then once you get it started, you have months and months and months, maybe years, like a year or two until you get to the point where you can do something anyway.
So, you might as well get it started.
I know. And you are right. I'm not going to argue with that. But it's just hard cuz I feel like there's parts of the bottom of it that I like and parts that I don't I don't like.
So, it's it's tough. But, I mean, the part that I hate nobody ever sees cuz it's like on the back. It's like by my elbow. So, I'm like, no one's going to see it.
But like also I see it.
What were those?
No, I I got those done two years ago by girl, which by the way, they're not badly done.
Mhm.
Um
they were pretty saturated though, if I recall. They are. And that's why it must have hurt more.
I think that's why. Yeah. more pigment in the skin, the more explosion there is. And the more explosion, the more heat and more pain.
So, the lighter tattoos fade easily and they usually don't hurt much.
But those deeper, darker, more saturated tattoos definitely hurt,
honestly.
that was the stupidest thing like I ever did.
It's not that bad, though. It's a small tattoo.
It's so small, but like I'm gonna float float my boat, toot my own horn. I don't know. one or the other, but I'm gonna toot to be be I'm like a really pretty girl. Like I'm very attractive.
Like there was no reason for me to like put even even close to something like that on my face. And not to say that if you're attractive you shouldn't tattoo your face. Do what makes you happy.
it's the look that you're going for. And and is that the look?
It's not me. Like that was me at 17. That's not me now. I'm like a grown adult.
I work in two kind of similar but also very different worlds where like okay yes I'm in the tattoo industry. It's fine to have tattoos on your face but also like I work I present myself and I am like a representation of a brand doing content creation where like a lot of the consumers are like wealthier classier people and they don't want to see that on my face. I don't want to see that on my face. So, it's like I'm happy to express myself with my tattoos where they can be hidden, but also at the same time like still look classy when I go out, you know?
Yeah.
And it's like when things are super visible, like don't get me wrong, like I love talking to strangers, but like I don't want to talk about it. Like I don't need people commenting on it. And like it's not my jam. " like cool, but like it's not the image I'm trying to portray is like like a bad to the bone vibe.
Like it's not me at all.
Yeah.
so
once again, luckily there is the option to remove it. What would you do if it if there wasn't that option? You just have to live with it.
I will probably like
conceal it with makeup all the time.
like a skin graft
wouldn't even graft it if I well I don't think I need a facelift at 40 I'm going to amp that up 60
that's a long time living with that tattoo then
but I will cover it and then you know then get you know do the little nip and tuck moment like I'm firm believer do the plastic surgery get rid of it that way but yeah the ear I don't I would have no choice like I would just have to live with that. Yeah. Well, it's it's good that you came in to get the tattoo removed.
it's gonna take a while.
That thing's going to take quite a bit. Um what we'll do is we'll uh maybe we'll have you on again.
yeah, I'll share my face.
We'll see how you're how you're feeling and you know what you think about the experience of getting tattoo removal. maybe come back on some other time and we'll kind of follow up and if we do any other pieces then we'll shoot that as well.
I'm scared.
Yeah, don't be scared. We'll be okay.
Well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
It was a pleasure and uh thank you all for tuning in to Faded and we'll see you again next time.