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?
随着卡罗琳•肯尼迪(Caroline Kennedy)的政治热情日趋高涨（10月份，美国参议院正式同意其担任驻日大使），她肘部的蝴蝶纹身似乎在慢慢淡出视线，更多地藏身于香奈儿(Chanel)长袖外套下了，难道这一切仅仅只是巧合吗？
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.
卡罗琳是遭暗杀的肯尼迪总统(John F. Kennedy)的女儿，无疑会成为出色的大使，但她若真希望延续自己的政治抱负，还是遮盖住自己肘上的纹身为妙——可能的话，最好做激光手术把它去除掉。
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，奥巴马总统( President Obama)提携卡罗琳•肯尼迪为驻日大使，61%的人力资源部主管会表示有异议，他们认为一目了然的纹身会让应聘者获得工作的概率大打折扣。“纹身的影响力已经超越了招聘过程，它严重影响到对申请者能力的基本判断。”工作场所职业水准年度研究报告的起草者说，他们均来自宾州约克学院专业卓越中心(Centre for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania)的研究人员。
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.
美国陆军部(US Army)提议显眼纹身者（在膝下、肘部或是脖子以上）严禁入伍，暗指这些人也越来越不受工作单位待见。
“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.
“您打算与人合伙，手上却有海豚纹身，那么就没人会真正待见你，”伦敦卡多根诊所(Cadogan Clinic)的整形外科医生布赖恩•马尤(Bryan Mayou)说。他还说：过去两年，在自己位于切尔西(Chelsea)的私人诊所，要求去纹身者增加了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.
“水手是最初的纹身沉溺者，但如今纹身者遍布各个社会经济阶层，它就好比传染病。如今30多岁、40多岁的银行家与律师（男女都有）都来到我的诊所，因为他们颇为尴尬于自己的纹身，”英国皮肤病学会(British Academy of Dermatology)皮肤病顾问兼发言人尼克•洛博士(Nick Lowe)说。
“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.”

“公众常把纹身与酗酒相提并论，”来自伊利诺伊州的皮肤病医生艾米•托布博士(Dr Amy Forman Taub)说，该州有意去除纹身者的比例高达30%。“在广告界及硅谷等创意领域，纹身无关紧要，甚至属预料之中的事，但在华尔街(Wall Street)，纹身对于自己的职业有百害而无一利。”
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)以及贝克汉姆(David Beckham)这类名人总是不断纹身；他们习惯于用纹身纪念重大事件。”
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.
英国皮肤病学会去年发布报告：有三分之一的纹身者事后后悔，此举导致去除纹身的激光新技术问世。
“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.
“激光发出超快脉冲光去除纹身时，都能听到打磨皮肤的声音，”专门生产去除纹身激光器的埃尔曼国际公司(Ellman International)的CEO弗兰克•达梅利奥(Frank D’Amelio)说。“冲击波可以把油墨破裂成小颗粒，这些微粒可以通过淋巴系统去除掉。”总共需要3-15次激光手术，每次费用150美元起，具体费用取决于纹身的大小以及颜色。
“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.”
“最难去除的颜色是黄色、蓝色及绿色，”纽约激光及皮肤外科中心(Laser and Skin Surgery Centre)主任罗伊•格罗内穆斯博士(Roy Geronemus)说。“但PicoSure纹身去除术的成功病倒越来越多。”
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激光仪于今年4月推向市场，或许可以为快速去除纹身铺平道路。但这种先进技术也有副作用。
“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.”
“年轻一代对纹身持暂时性观念，因为他们觉得纹身能很容易去除掉，”英敏特(Mintel)市场趋势高级分析师凯瑟琳•康特妮(Catherine Cottney)说。“这些年轻人并没有意识到高昂的手术费用以及手术的痛苦程度。”
Painful? “Basically we are burning the skin so I inject liquid anaesthetic into each area,” says Forman Taub.
手术痛苦吗？“从根本上讲，手术就是烧灼皮肤，因此我会对相应的区域注射液体麻醉剂，”托布说。
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.
既然卡罗琳•肯尼迪已被任命为大使，她就得为是否再保住自己的蝴蝶纹身好好思量一番。在日本，身上饰有微小纹身者，都可能被餐馆与商店拒之门外。如今社会的就业竞争如此惨烈，并非只有日本视纹身为禁忌。