Despite their popularity, many people live to regret their decision to have a tattoo. The good news is that you don’t have to put up with your tattoo for a lifetime—there is hope! Tattoo removal using methods such as surgery, acid peels and metal brush scrubbing are a thing of the past! Laser tattoo removal is a patient-friendly solution which is low-risk and has minimal side effects.
How does laser tattoo removal work?
When you have a tattoo, the ink is injected into the deep layers of the skin and is locked away by a wall of collagen fibres. This makes the body’s immune system unable to remove the tattoo pigments. Our Q-switched laser produces a very short and strong high energy laser pulse. This penetrates deep into the skin and is absorbed by the tattoo ink. The laser pulses create a photo-acoustic affect and break the tattoo pigments into smaller pieces. As the tattoo ink is now in smaller particles, the body’s immune system can remove them.
We insist on a test patch before commencing treatment. This is carried out to establish whether your tattoo pigment contains iron oxide, titanium oxide or any other metallic element. If either of these oxides are present, the test patch will immediately go black and no attempt to remove the tattoo using laser treatment should be attempted. In such circumstances, the only alternative is surgical removal of the tattoo.
