From Coal Mines to Clearing Skin: How Mike Anderson Built a Tattoo Removal Empire from the Ground Up

“I always knew I wasn’t built to clock in and out for someone else,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, I had my own car wash business and got the other kids on the street to work for me. That mindset never really left.”

So when he and his girlfriend (now wife) were about to lock themselves into a mortgage in Sydney’s east, he paused. Something didn’t sit right. They ditched the house plans and flew to Thailand to clear their heads. And that’s where everything changed.

An idea on the beach

Sitting on the beach, Mike started noticing something tattoo removal was booming overseas, but it was half-baked back home. Bad service, poor results, zero professionalism.

“We started digging into it right there on the sand,” he says. “Four months later, we opened our first clinic.”

That clinic became Think Again Laser Clinic. A decade later, it’s grown into nine locations across Australia and New Zealand, with its first US clinic opening in Beverly Hills this year.

Not your average business owner

Mike isn’t just the CEO. He’s the test dummy. Literally.

“I’ve had 120 removal sessions. Full chest, back, arms, legs the whole lot,” he laughs. “My team needed skin to practice on. I gave them mine.”

The reason people come in? It’s not always as wild as you’d think. Most just want to clean up an old decision.

“People change. They grow up. They switch careers, leave relationships, or just don’t vibe with the old ink anymore,” Mike says. “We help them move on.”

But sometimes, it goes deeper trauma tattoos, spelling disasters, names that shouldn’t be there. Think Again handles it all.

Giving second chances

Beyond the paying clients, Mike’s proudest work comes through his community programs.

One offers free tattoo removal for cancer survivors who want radiation marker tattoos gone after treatment. Another called Chance for Change helps people erase gang ink, racist symbols, or tattoos from abusive relationships.

“These people want a clean slate. We give it to them,” Mike says. “It’s about helping them move forward without carrying the past on their skin.”

Next stop: America

With close to 150,000 sessions completed, Think Again is heading stateside. Backed by Clutch Capital, who bought 50 percent of the company in 2019, Mike’s team is getting ready to launch in California.

“We’ve got the systems locked in. Now it’s about scale,” he says. “Beverly Hills is first. But we’re thinking much bigger.”

Built different

Mike’s not into the flashy stuff. No “look at me” business jargon. Just straight-up hustle and long-term thinking.

“I came from nothing. Single mum, five kids. Every win feels big,” he says. “Even the small stuff like hiring someone who turns out to be a gun we celebrate that.”

He’s not chasing viral moments. He’s building something solid. One clinic, one client, one clean slate at a time.

And that’s exactly the kind of entrepreneur Australia needs more of.

Image Credit: https://www.moneymag.com.au/