It used to be that you'd only visit the GP if you were sick or needing a fill-up of prescriptions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But at one Canberra clinic, patients can now have the regretful results of a drunken night out removed or even have the name of an ex-partner expunged.
The Ainslie Family Practice clinic has started offering tattoo removals for clients, and while it's only been available for a few weeks, demand has been booming.
Medical professionals have said offering services such as laser tattoo removals could be the start of local GPs diversifying their service away from just the traditional appointment.
Practice manager Kylee Hjorth said while there are dedicated tattoo removal clinics around, having the laser surgery take place at a doctor's clinic allowed for more medical expertise.
"We get a patient's history and medical history beforehand, because potentially that could impact on how long the tattoo takes to be removed," Ms Hjorth said.
"It won't just go away in one session, so you have to manage the expectation of patients.
"It all depends on the different levels of ink, the colour of the ink and the depth and the size of the tattoo."
Ms Hjorth said there were some conditions, such as autoimmune diseases, that also impacted upon how many laser sessions it would take to remove a tattoo.
The service has only been available at the GP clinic since July, and already Canberrans have been lining up to get their regrettable ink taken off.
"Because it's done by a nurse or a GP there's a level of trust there," Ms Hjorth said.
"If there's more medical understanding behind how the laser works and what the skin will look like in the end, the process is much easier."
President of the Australian Medical Association ACT branch Dr Antonio Di Dio said the decision of the Ainslie practice to offer tattoo removal was part of a broader trend of clinics branching out into other areas.
"It's a natural extension of the normal GP role," Dr Di Dio said.
"The demand [for tattoo removals] is likely to increase because the number of tattoos has increased."
Dr Di Dio said GPs carrying out treatment such as tattoo removals often brought with it experience from other medical areas.
"You can bet that tattoo removal will so often bring with it a whole range of physical and emotional concerns, and that's best treated by your personal family doctor who has known you for years."
Clinical nurse specialist at the practice Monika Indanan said it was likely other medical clinics across Canberra could follow suit.
"For other practices, even though they don't necessarily offer tattoo removal, they offer things along the line of aesthetic medicine like Botox, and many are going into that now," Ms Indanan said.
"We're very new to this, but it is about diversifying and offering more services.
"Of the tattoos I've seen, there have been some small ones and others that are really big that are several years old."