Removery, a tattoo removal company based out of Austin, Texas, is planning to open a location at Ballston Quarter in early August.
The studio at 4238 Wilson Blvd, in the open-air portion of the shopping center, will offer services related to removing or changing tattoos. It will remove tattoos of all sizes and colors and change or cover up old ink jobs with the help of local tattoo artists, according to the company’s website.
“Relationship status changes, changes in their lifestyle, because someone thought it was cool in college and now they have a family,” Removery’s Director of Marketing Trent Lootens said. “People are transitioning in their lives and we play a large role in that.”
The expansion into Arlington this summer is part of the company’s plan to open over 200 new locations across North America and Australia in large, metropolitan areas over the next five years, said Caitlin Wolf, Removery’s Public Relations Director.
The company was formed in 2019 through the merger of the nation’s four biggest tattoo removal companies. Removery’s founders, originally from Australia, saw an opportunity to establish sites in the U.S. that exclusively offer tattoo removal services, Lootens said.
“A lot of plastic surgeons and dermatologists do this but no one specializes in this and makes it the focal point like we do,” he said.
A small tattoo costs about $990 to remove while a larger tattoo costs around $3,990. Price depends on the quantity of ink the customer wants removed. A medium-sized tattoo takes about ten treatments to fully remove spaced out over sessions six to eight weeks apart. Each session takes about 15 minutes.
The company last year made national headlines because of its INK-nitiative, a program that offers free tattoo removals to formerly or currently incarcerated people, gang members, survivors of human trafficking or people who have hateful tattoos. For every paying customer the company will provide a removal for someone in any of those categories.
The new Arlington shop will make the program accessible to D.C. area residents who meet the qualifications and wish to have such tattoos removed. So far, around 90 people have had tattoos removed through INK-nitative, said Lootens.