Australians have revealed their own tattoo horror stories following the extraordinary tale of a Belgium teen who claimed to wake up in a tattoo parlour with 56 stars on her face.
Unwanted pornography, obscenities and shoddy ink jobs on private parts are among the tattoo 'art' driving regretful Australians to tattoo removal clinics, according to readers who spoke to ninemsn.
PHOTOS: World's worst tattoos
One man from the Northern Territory described a disastrous experience where he tried to get a mural of his wife on his arm but wound up with something "pornographic".
"You go in for this picture of your wife and you come out with this big-boobed thing," said Wayne Marshall.
"I was furious: I said to the tattooist, 'gee thanks mate' and he said, 'I thought she looked better like that.'"
Another man on the verge of being married visited a tattoo removal clinic in Melbourne to deal with a "get f***ed" ink that had been tattooed backwards on the inside of his lip.
"He was a nice young kid with a fiance — so he wanted it removed," said Laser Dermatology's chief nurse Lynne Bekhor.
Ms Bekhor said her clinic sees at least six people a day for tattoo removals.
The practice becomes increasingly popular, she said, especially among people who had the art done when they were about Ms Vlaeminck's age.
Belgian teenager Kimberley Vlaeminck captured headlines around the globe after saying she fell asleep in a parlour while 56 stars were inked onto the left side of her face, a claim she last week admitted was a lie.
(Read more: 'Father's rage' prompted lie)
Other Australian women who got tattoos before they were 25 told ninemsn they had now either seriously regretted their decision or simply wanted the art gone.
Susie, a 22-year-old woman from Melbourne who did not give her surname, said she made a spontaneous decision to get a tattoo last September and was now having it removed.
She had the word "love" branded on her wrist — but says she hated the tattoo almost immediately.
"I ended up in tears over it … it got to me straight away," she said.
Melbourne woman Lisa Cudo let a friend tattoo a Hindu symbol on her lower stomach when she was 21, admitting she was fortunate the procedure did not go badly wrong.
"I was taking a risk, luckily it paid off … I'd advise other young people against it," she said.
Another woman, Louise Edwards, had uneven tattoos inked on her breasts during a "tomboy stage" at 19.
"I'd tell people now, 'Dude — leave it for six months, get a Henna tattoo, draw it on'," she said.
Anyone considering having a tattoo removed needed to make sure it was done professionally, Ms Bekhor said. (Read more: More teen girls getting tattoos)
"They need to go to a dermatologist and be treated under the auspices of a skin specialist," she said.
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