When you get a tattoo, it probably never enters your mind that one day you might want to have it removed. If you’re thinking about getting a tattoo, you might find it surprising to know that 1 in 5 people who have tattoos regret getting them. In 2012 alone, tattoo removal increased 43%.
There are a number of reasons for people to consider having their tattoos removed. Maybe you have a tattoo with the name of an old boyfriend or girlfriend. You thought it would last, but it didn’t work out. In some cases, the reason for removing a tattoo is employment-related. Even if you took your time and gave your tattoo choice serious consideration, sometimes years later, you might end up wishing you hadn’t gotten it. Unfortunately, it happens and then you find yourself considering tattoo removal.
How Does Tattoo Removal Work?
The only clinically-proven method of removing a tattoo without causing scarring is laser tattoo removal. A laser produces wavelengths of light. This energy must be applied for the correct length of time and with sufficient power for effective tattoo removal. Tattoo ink can be difficult to shatter and remove.
Laser tattoo removal consists of laser light applied to the tattooed area of the skin, and typically multiple treatments are required. The light is selectively absorbed by the tattoo ink particles, leaving the surrounding skin tissue and chromophores unharmed.
When the ink particles absorb the laser energy, they heat up. This causes them to shatter into smaller ink particles. After receiving a laser treatment, the body’s immune system will flush the shattered particles. Over time, this will cause the tattoo to fade. With each treatment, more ink particles will shatter, lightening the tattoo even more until the skin is ink free.
Q Switched Laser Tattoo Removal
Until recently, only the Q-switched method was capable of producing sufficient energy or power known as fluence to remove dark and bright tattoos without resulting in side effects like scarring. The laser pulses produced by this method last for just nanoseconds, or billionths of a second. These pulses provided the high levels of fluence to effectively shatter tattoo ink.
PicoSure Laser Tattoo Removal
For years, Q-Switched lasers were the gold standard for removing tattoos. This has changed with the launch of PicoSure. This method consists of ultra-short pulses equal to one trillionth of a second in length. Significantly shorter than the pulses generated by the Q-Switched method, they hit the ink particles with such great pressure that the ink shatters into tiny dust-like particles. Their size allows the particles to be more easily absorbed and flushed away by the body.
Advantages of PicoSure
PicoSure laser tattoo removal has many advantages over Q-Switched nanosecond laser technology.
- Fewer treatments with better results
- Faster total recovery time
- Better at removing stubborn green and blue ink
- Less painful than nanosecond laser removal
- Effective on previously treated tattoos with resistant ink areas
Keep in mind, each tattoo is unique and presents its own challenges such as the location of the tattoo, the depth of the placement and the color of the ink when it comes to tattoo removal. There may also be personal factors that can impact the effectiveness of any tattoo removal procedure. People who have diabetes or smoke cigarettes may require more treatments. PicoSure generally produces better results with fewer treatments.
Vive Center is proud to announce that we will be offering state-of-the-art tattoo removal using the PicoSure laser. What makes this tattoo removal laser so unique is that it can treat all colors, all skin types, and works in a third to half the time of traditional laser tattoo removal.
So are you tired of covering up that tattoo and you’re ready to get rid of it? Schedule your consultation today and find out if PicoSure tattoo removal is right for you.
