Tattoo Removal

When you’re getting a tattoo, the ink sure does look like a liquid. However, it actually has ink particles in it that are suspended in your skin or else the ink could dissolve completely and disappear. During your laser treatment, pulses of energy pass harmlessly through your skin, the ink particles absorb the energy and heat up causing the pigment to shatter into smaller particles. Over the next few weeks, your immune system will flush away these tiny ink particles causing your tattoo to fade.

Did you notice when you first got your tattoo the lines were sharp, the black was solid and the color was more intense? Then after a month or so, you noticed a bit of fading. That fading happened because your immune system carried away any particles in the ink that were too small to remain lodged under your skin. Same principle– we’re just helping along any ink that remained.

It’s all about perspective! What took hours of enduring penetrating needles (ouch!) takes only minutes under the laser. So… if you can stand hours of needles poking your skin, minutes of a laser are very doable.

We’ll use a cold pack to numb the area before treatment and then we aim freezing cold air from a cryogenic cooler at the area being treated, just to keep you comfortable. In fact, most people say they don’t even feel anything after the laser stops firing.

Patience is key! Tattoos were meant to be permanent and laser removal is the only way to remove them safely without scarring. Treatments are scheduled a minimum of six weeks apart, sometimes longer, depending on where you got inked. This allows your skin to heal in between treatments and it gives your immune system plenty of time to do its job. This isn’t something to be rushed. After all, you don’t want to replace your unwanted ink design with a permanent scar.

Just like every tattoo is unique, so is every tattoo removal. Generally, it takes an average of 10 treatments to get rid of a black tattoo. During your initial consultation, we’ll ask you a series of questions that will help estimate the number of treatments you’ll need. For instance: What’s the age, size and location of the tattoo? Do you smoke? Was it done by an amateur or a professional?

Definitely! There’s a difference between a black homemade tattoo done by an amateur and getting inked in a professional shop. An amateur tattoo is an easy removal needing a handful of treatments whereas a tattoo professionally packed with color is much more complicated to remove and will require many more sessions.

Absolutely not. If you’re planning on getting a cover up but your existing design is really dark, we can fade your old design with a few treatments to provide your artist a cleaner canvas to work on. Or, you love most of your tattoo, but you don’t like a section of it, we can remove only the bits you want to get rid of.

You finally decided to get a tattoo removed and you want it gone as soon as possible. Getting treatments less than six weeks apart isn’t an option because there’s potential for harm and permanent changes to the skin with pigment and scarring. Laser tattoo removal is achieved in part by 30% laser and 70% your immune system. The healthier your immune system, the more resources it can dedicate to flushing out that unwanted ink.

We recommend:

• Plenty of exercise
• Quit smoking – even reducing helps
• Nutritious diet with plenty of vitamin C rich foods
• Avoid unnecessary stress
• Take a good multi-vitamin

There’s a new technology in town but is it worth the cost? In basic terms, a short pulsed laser is used for tattoo removal. Q switched lasers produce a very short pulse defined in nanoseconds or picoseconds. (Nanosecond = 1 billionth of a second) We use a Lutronic Spectra Q Switched Nd:Yag (nanosecond) laser which is the gold standard for tattoo removal. A faster technology surfaced a few years ago using picosecond lasers producing a faster pulse. The thought behind it was a faster pulse should provide a more effective treatment. In reality, these machines cost double or triple what a nanosecond machine costs, only to speed up the process by 1 or 2 treatments. Because the machine costs more, your treatments will cost more. Is it worth the cost? Probably not.