肯尼迪女兒疑去除紋身 有望成爲時尚

Could it be a coincidence that just as Caroline Kennedy becomes more visibly political – in October she was confirmed by the US Senate as ambassador to Japan – the butterfly tattoo below her elbow appears to be fading and is increasingly hidden beneath long-sleeved Chanel jackets?

隨着卡羅琳•肯尼迪(Caroline Kennedy)的政治熱情日趨高漲（10月份，美國參議院正式同意其擔任駐日大使），她肘部的蝴蝶紋身似乎在慢慢淡出視線，更多地藏身於香奈兒(Chanel)長袖外套下了，難道這一切僅僅只是巧合嗎？

Kennedy, the daughter of assassinated president John F. Kennedy, will no doubt make an exemplary ambassador but she is well advised to cover up her tattoo – or even have laser treatment to remove it – if her ambitions in politics continue in earnest.

卡羅琳是遭暗殺的肯尼迪總統(John F. Kennedy)的女兒，無疑會成爲出色的大使，但她若真希望延續自己的政治抱負，還是遮蓋住自己肘上的紋身爲妙——可能的話，最好做激光手術把它去除掉。

Indeed President Obama’s promotion of Kennedy is at odds with the 61 per cent of HR managers who believe a visible tattoo damages a job applicant’s chances of employment. “The influence of appearance goes beyond the hiring process. It has an impact on the perception of one’s competence,” say the authors of an annual study on professionalism in the workplace from the Centre for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania.

勿庸置疑，奧巴馬總統( President Obama)提攜卡羅琳•肯尼迪爲駐日大使，61%的人力資源部主管會表示有異議，他們認爲一目瞭然的紋身會讓應聘者獲得工作的概率大打折扣。“紋身的影響力已經超越了招聘過程，它嚴重影響到對申請者能力的基本判斷。”工作場所職業水準年度研究報告的起草者說，他們均來自賓州約克學院專業卓越中心(Centre for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania)的研究人員。

The US Army’s proposed ban on visible tattoos (those below the knee or elbow or above the neckline) also implies that they are becoming less acceptable at work.

美國陸軍部(US Army)提議顯眼紋身者（在膝下、肘部或是脖子以上）嚴禁入伍，暗指這些人也越來越不受工作單位待見。

“No one is going to take you seriously if you’re up for partnership and you have a tattoo of a dolphin on your hand,” says Bryan Mayou, a plastic surgeon at the Cadogan Clinic in London. In the past two years, Mayou says, he has seen a 50 per cent increase in patients for tattoo removal at his Chelsea practice.

“您打算與人合夥，手上卻有海豚紋身，那麼就沒人會真正待見你，”倫敦卡多根診所(Cadogan Clinic)的整形外科醫生布賴恩•馬尤(Bryan Mayou)說。他還說：過去兩年，在自己位於切爾西(Chelsea)的私人診所，要求去紋身者增加了50%。

“Sailors were the original tattoo addicts but now they go across the socioeconomic spectrum. It’s an epidemic, and we now see bankers and lawyers in their late thirties and forties of both sexes coming in because they are genuinely embarrassed by them,” says Dr Nick Lowe, consultant dermatologist and spokesman for the British Academy of Dermatology.

“水手是最初的紋身沉溺者，但如今紋身者遍佈各個社會經濟階層，它就好比傳染病。如今30多歲、40多歲的銀行家與律師（男女都有）都來到我的診所，因爲他們頗爲尷尬於自己的紋身，”英國皮膚病學會(British Academy of Dermatology)皮膚病顧問兼發言人尼克•洛博士(Nick Lowe)說。

“People associate tattoos with drunken behaviour,” explains Dr Amy Forman Taub, a dermatologist in Illinois where interest in removal is up 30 per cent. “In a creative environment like advertising or in Silicon Valley, a tattoo is OK or even expected. But on Wall Street a tattoo would not be advantageous to your career.”

“公衆常把紋身與酗酒相提並論，”來自伊利諾伊州的皮膚病醫生艾米•託布博士(Dr Amy Forman Taub)說，該州有意去除紋身者的比例高達30%。“在廣告界及硅谷等創意領域，紋身無關緊要，甚至屬預料之中的事，但在華爾街(Wall Street)，紋身對於自己的職業有百害而無一利。”

Dr Ben Saunders, a tattoo removal specialist at UK chain Trueskin MediSpa, has a different take: “I see tattoos more as an outlet for compulsive behaviour,” he says. “Celebrities such as Cara Delevingne and David Beckham are constantly adding tattoos; it has become a habit to mark every momentous occasion with ink.”

“卡拉•迪瓦伊(cara delevingne)以及貝克漢姆(David Beckham)這類名人總是不斷紋身；他們習慣於用紋身紀念重大事件。”

Last year the British Academy of Dermatology reported a third of people regretted their tattoo, which has led to new laser technology to remove them.

英國皮膚病學會去年發佈報告：有三分之一的紋身者事後後悔，此舉導致去除紋身的激光新技術問世。

“Lasers put out an ultra-fast pulsed width of light that you can actually hear hitting the skin,” says Frank D’Amelio, chief executive of Ellman International, a company that makes lasers for tattoo removal. “The shock breaks up the ink into small particles and these fine particles are removed through the lymph system.” Anything from three to 15 sessions are required, costing from £150 a treatment, depending on the size and colour of the ink.

“激光發出超快脈衝光去除紋身時，都能聽到打磨皮膚的聲音，”專門生產去除紋身激光器的埃爾曼國際公司(Ellman International)的CEO弗蘭克•達梅利奧(Frank D’Amelio)說。“衝擊波可以把油墨破裂成小顆粒，這些微粒可以通過淋巴系統去除掉。”總共需要3-15次激光手術，每次費用150美元起，具體費用取決於紋身的大小以及顏色。

“The toughest pigments to remove are yellow, blue and green,” says Dr Roy Geronemus, director of the Laser and Skin Surgery Centre in New York. “But I am seeing a lot more successes with PicoSure treatment.”

“最難去除的顏色是黃色、藍色及綠色，”紐約激光及皮膚外科中心(Laser and Skin Surgery Centre)主任羅伊•格羅內穆斯博士(Roy Geronemus)說。“但PicoSure紋身去除術的成功病倒越來越多。”

The PicoSure laser, launched in April, may be paving the way for quicker tattoo removal but such advances in technology are also having an adverse effect.

PicoSure激光儀於今年4月推向市場，或許可以爲快速去除紋身鋪平道路。但這種先進技術也有副作用。

“Generation Y have a much more transient view of tattoos because they think they can easily get them removed,” says Catherine Cottney, senior trend analyst at Mintel. “They don’t realise how expensive and painful it is.”

“年輕一代對紋身持暫時性觀念，因爲他們覺得紋身能很容易去除掉，”英敏特(Mintel)市場趨勢高級分析師凱瑟琳•康特妮(Catherine Cottney)說。“這些年輕人並沒有意識到高昂的手術費用以及手術的痛苦程度。”

Painful? “Basically we are burning the skin so I inject liquid anaesthetic into each area,” says Forman Taub.

手術痛苦嗎？“從根本上講，手術就是燒灼皮膚，因此我會對相應的區域注射液體麻醉劑，”託布說。

Now that Kennedy has been made ambassador, she will need to think hard about whether the butterfly stays; in Japan a small tattoo can even prohibit entry to some restaurants and shops. And in an increasingly crowded jobs market, it is not just in Tokyo that tattoos are becoming taboo.

既然卡羅琳•肯尼迪已被任命爲大使，她就得爲是否再保住自己的蝴蝶紋身好好思量一番。在日本，身上飾有微小紋身者，都可能被餐館與商店拒之門外。如今社會的就業競爭如此慘烈，並非只有日本視紋身爲禁忌。