In recent years, laser tattoo removal has become the most common option for tattoo removal. The technique involves the use of a high-intensity light beam that breaks up the pigment of the tattoo. The pigment is then slowly absorbed by your body’s immune system.
Typically, several follow up sessions are required. The number will depend on:
- Type of laser used
- Type of ink (they can contain iron oxide (rust), carbon, soot, cadmium, lead chromate, titanium or
copper and ABS plastic (to increase color vibrancy) just to name a few tattoo pigment ingredients)
- Dye colors
- Skin type
- Location of the tattoo (forearm and ankle tattoos generally take longest).
- Amount of ink
- Layering
- Scarring or tissue change
- Your body’s ability to heal and rid itself of the ink
- Whether the tattoo was done professionally or by an amateur
Laser therapy is considered so effective because it can penetrate into the dermal layers where the ink is. These are the skin layers that contain our sweat glands, hair follicles, small blood vessels called capillaries, sebaceous glands (where skin oil or ’sebum’ is produced) as well as nerve endings. When you get a tattoo it is this skin layer that ‘contains’ the tattoo ink (encased in fibroblasts) – making it a permanent part of your dermis.
Each laser treatment takes only a few minutes to complete and, if needed, an anesthetic may be used (often 1% lidocaine). Laser tattoo removal tends to work well with inks applied by professional tattoo artists since the ink is more apt to be at the same depth in the skin. Darker pigments especially black, dark red and blue tend to remove well with lasers. Other colors not easily removed with lasers are greens, yellows, light reds, turquoise and oranges.
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