abc's chuck roberts explains. >> reporter: tattoos can be a work of of art, form of of expression or by-product of young rebellion. jenna had four before she was 20. at 30 she wants to get rid of most of them. >> it was nice when i was younger. i try to be more professional now. >> reporter: with lasers doctors can eliminate some evidence. years ago the only options were to cut out or sand off the tattoo leaving permanent scars. now plastic surgeons erase them with intense beams of light. >> it provides a certain amount of heat which breaks up the tattoo pigments. >> reporter: single-color black or blue tattoos are the ease yeflt to take off. >> the lasers have an easier time picking up those darker colors than the lighter ones. >> reporter: they don't magically disappear. sometimes it takes months, even years for a tattoo to fade away. the procedure is painful, so jenna says think before you use your body as a canvas. >> you should put a picture by your bed of the tattoo you want, wake up every morning, look at it for two to three weeks, if you're not sick of it by then it's probabl