Cutting into bath tub tile work and possibly popping tiles out for re-use?

[davenlei]

I have a roman tub in the bathroom where the water inlet is leaking when turned on.  I had a plumber come out and cut a hole in the ceiling below and he could not get to the leak due to layers of subfloor in between.  He said we need to have an access hole cut into the tile work framing the bathtub next to where the faucet and spout are (the faucets and spout are on a horizontal flat tiled shelf at one end of the tub).  So the question is, what are the pitfalls I have to look out for when cutting through the grout and through the backer board. 
Also is it possible to 'pop' the tiles up and save them to be re-used when patching things back up?