Enlisting?
Start the removal first.

Every year, people walk into recruiting offices around Metro Detroit and walk out with the same problem: a tattoo where a tattoo cannot be. The details vary by branch and they change over time — but the fix does not. If ink is standing between you and enlistment, the removal has to start early, because the one thing no recruiter, no waiver, and no clinic can compress is the calendar.

What actually disqualifies

Each branch writes its own tattoo policy, and they get revised often enough that the only current answer comes from your recruiter. The patterns are stable, though: placement rules for the hands, neck, face and head; content rules against anything extremist, indecent or discriminatory, wherever it sits. Some placements can be waived; content generally cannot. Get the specific verdict on your specific tattoo from the recruiter first — then bring that verdict here, because it defines exactly what has to go and what can stay.

The timeline nobody tells you about

Laser removal is a course of treatments, not an appointment. Each session breaks up a layer of ink and your body clears it over the five to eight weeks that follow — which is why an amateur or homemade piece takes two to five treatments and professional work usually runs five to twelve. Do that math against a ship date: even a small, simple hand tattoo is likely a several-month project, and a dense professional piece can be a year or more. "Removal takes time, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something" is printed on our home page, and it applies double when a contract is waiting on the result.

The good news for enlistees: the tattoos that block enlistment are usually small and often amateur work — names on fingers, small pieces on the neck or hands — and those sit at the fast end of every range. Hands and fingers do clear more slowly than the neck or chest, because circulation does the clearing, but they get there.

What it costs, and the discount

Pricing is per treatment, by the square inch of actual ink: $99 for the first square inch, $49 each additional, and small pieces — teardrops, a few dots on a hand, rings — are a flat $49 a session. The clinic gives 20% off to military, law enforcement and fire protection; ask about it at the consultation. There is no package to buy, so if the standards change or a waiver comes through mid-course, you stop paying the day you stop treating.

If you are serious about enlisting

• Get the ruling from your recruiter first — which tattoos, and to what standard.
• Book the consultation the same week. It is free, the tattoo gets measured, and you leave knowing the real number of months.
• Start immediately. There is often time to treat at the first visit, and every session you bank is five to eight weeks you do not spend later.

Book the free consultation or call 734-629-5434 — and tell us it is for enlistment, so the treatment plan gets built around your timeline rather than the tattoo's.