Make Sure To Block Out Your Schedule
While some laser sessions are quick and easy, not all are. Mine have been taking about 45 minutes because we take before photos, clean the areas, inject them with lidocaine for freezing, laser them, ice them, and then bandage them. Oh, and sometimes a weird side effect happens where I taste metal when the laser hits my skin. Dr. Adams says it’s a sensation that some people experience when the lidocaine is hit by the laser and that it’s totally normal.
But Doesnt Tattoo Removal Involve A Laser
The lasers used for hair removal and tattoo removal are very different. Tattoo removal lasers are Q-switch devices that deliver energy much faster so that the laser hits the pigment causing it to fragment. In contrast, the laser used for hair removal is meant to deliver energy to be absorbed by the hair follicle, which in turn depletes its ability to produce more hair. For this reason, if a tattoo was to make contact with a hair removal laser the pigment would absorb the energy and would not be able to cool quickly enough, thus causing a blister and possible damage to the tattoo and skin.
Again, it is not safe to do laser hair removal over a tattoo. Always consult a trained and experienced practitioner who knows to avoid tattoos when administering laser hair removal treatment.
Answer: Lasering Over A Tatoo
Lasers look for pigment, not hair. If you are getting LHR and you have dark pigment from a tatoo, you can have traumatic burns when the laser is pulsed to the skin. Depending on the location, the technician can place a template over the tatoo to focus on the rest of the area and AVOID the black or dark colored area. P.S. Moles can have the same results.
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How To Better Serve Aesthetic Patients With Tattoos
With more than half the American population either having or considering a tattoo, a proactive and strong business move would be to expand your aesthetic clinics offerings to better serve this potential patient base with complementary treatments. Consider a versatile multi-treatment device, like Venus Versa, that enables you to best serve all of your prospective patients through the use of different applicators that provide RF-based treatments alongside popular IPL options.
You can also keep your equipment costs in check while you focus on business growth through Venus Concepts industry-unique subscription-based business model. To learn more, contact a Venus Concept representative today.
Speak to An Expert
For more information call: // info@venusconcept.com // 235 Yorkland Blvd., Suite 900, Toronto, ON, M2J 4Y8 Canada
REGULATORY CLEARANCES
ARTAS iX is cleared by the FDA, licensed by Health Canada and has CE Mark with indication for use for harvesting hair follicles from the scalp in men diagnosed with androgenic alopecia who have black or brown straight hair. ARTAS iX is intended to assist physicians in identifying and extracting hair follicular units from the scalp during hair transplantation creating recipient sites and implanting harvested hair follicles.
Venus Skin is a skin care line of various lotions and creams intended to improve different aspects of skin appearance, skin serums, and skin nourishment solutions.
Introduce The Discussion Of This Topic Even If The Patient Doesn’t
Many patients have the misconception that the laser “burns” the tattoo ink out of the skin. By discussing how tattoo removal works, you can help patients appreciate the role that the laser has in eliminating their unwanted tattoo.
We suggest having a simplified answer such as this:
“Each pulse of the laser sends light energy into your skin. We use different wavelengths of laser light to treat different colors of ink in your tattoo. As the light energy is directed into your skin, it is selectively absorbed by the tattoo ink particles trapped in the dermis of your skin. When the ink particles absorb this energy, they instantly shatter into tiny fragments. Once the laser has broken the ink into smaller pieces, your body’s immune system works to remove the ink over the following weeks, flushing it away from the tattooed area. We see the result of this as the tattoo lightening in appearance. Each additional laser treatment breaks down more and more ink until the tattoo can no longer be seen.”
This description achieves a few things:
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Which One Hurts The Most
Finally, you may just be curious and want to know what hurts the most. For most people, getting a tattoo is far more painful than getting laser hair removal. But with both, it also depends on the area of your body where youre having the procedure done.
Many people say that getting a tattoo feels like a stinging sensation or like being stung by a bee. On the other hand, laser hair removal feels more like a hair band being snapped onto your skin, which if you grew up with a sibling, chances are youve felt this before and know that the feeling goes away pretty quickly.
Can You Help Me Revise This Tattoo
Every tattoo removal practitioner will encounter patients that don’t want their tattoos removed completely, but rather revised. Yes, you can provide support to patients looking for tattoo revision.
Anyone that is a candidate for tattoo removal liked tattoos enough to get inked at one point in their lives. As a practitioner, you’ll want to be sensitive to this and not assume which tattoo a patient wants removed or whether they want complete removal at all.
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It Hurts But It’s Bearable
When discussing pain with patients, it’s important to share that while they may experience some level of discomfort, the pain is relatively manageable and tolerable. It may take some tough love to encourage patients concerned about sensitivity.
The vast majority of tattoo removal providers offer some form of soothing to the skin during the treatment. Offering skin numbing during the procedure allows your practice to stay competitive, provide better patient care, and have higher patient satisfaction.
The Speed Of Removal Depends On The Patient And Their Tattoo
The Kirby-Desai scale is a popular and well-regarded tool for analyzing the number of treatments a tattoo will need for removal. The scale accounts for the following factors that affect the rate of removal:
- Fitzpatrick skin type
- Pre-existing scarring
The Kirby-Desai scale was published in 2009, and technology has improved since then to remove tattoos, but it continues to be an excellent tool for assessing where a patient stands on the bell curve. There are also other factors, such as patient health, that affect the speed of removal. If a patient is young, physically fit, and has a strong immune system, they will tend to see results faster than an older, obese patient with health problems. Encouraging patients to exercise, drink ample water, and massage thetreated area are good aftercare tips to share with patients looking to get the best results.
Technology plays an important factor in the rate of removal. The Astanza Trinity is the most powerful multi wavelength laser system on the market no other system can match its high peak power across three wavelengths. Interested in learning about laser wavelengths for achieving results? Check out our blog post: Why Wavelengths Matter for Removing Tattoos.
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Can I Have Laser Hair Removal Without Damaging The Tattoo
No, you cannot have laser hair removal on any area of skin thats covered with a tattoo. Not only will you damage the tattoo, you will burn and blister the skin. In fact, laser hair removal on a tattoo can even reduce the color in the tattoo.
Why? Well, laser hair removal works by sending a concentrated beam of light into your hair follicles. The laser is attracted to pigment which absorbs the light and heat, damaging the follicle enough to slowly stop further growth. Unfortunately, the technology cannot distinguish the difference between a tattoo and natural pigment so it damages the tattoo and your skin.
Thankfully, you can still have laser hair removal if you have tattoos youll just need to carefully cover your tattoo and laser around the area.
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How To Cover A Tattoo For Laser Hair Removal
If you have tattoos and want to treat unwanted hair near the tattooed skin, you can still be suitable for laser hair removal treatment. Trained and experienced practitioners can create a physical cover to protect your tattoo and target the hair on the surrounding areas. This ensures your tattoo will remain unaffected by any laser treatment you undergo.
The best way to prepare your skin for laser hair removal is to avoid any manual hair removal methods â like waxing and shaving â this will ensure your hair is in its most natural, visible state. If there is no hair visible, the laser will be ineffective at destroying the follicle as they will become undetectable.
Before your session, also avoid using any perfumed products, lotions or any acid-based products as this can cause reactions and irritations during the treatment.
Your free consultation is an opportunity for you to explain your treatment expectations and initiate a direct communication line with your practitioner. During the meeting, they will explain the procedure, expected outcomes and side effects. The practitioner will also answer any questions you may have regarding laser hair removal and your tattoo.
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Fewer Tattoo Removal Treatments Required
Laser tattoo removal is the most popular tattoo removal method today but it has many downsides. One of the biggest downsides to laser tattoo removal is the number of sessions required to see results. Some clients may pay and go through 20 sessions, only to end up with a tattoo that is faded buit not completely removed. Our UNDO TM non-laser tattoo removal system can remove your unwanted ink in fewer treatments than laser tattoo removal.
UNDO NON-LASER TATTOO REMOVAL IS COST EFFECTIVE
UNDO requires fewer sessions, thus it is more affordable than laser tattoo removal. Read More
UNDO IS THE SAFEST METHOD OF TATTOO REMOVAL
When you do a laser tattoo removal, the ink that is broken down by the laser. Read More
UNDO IS A COMFORTABLE EXPERIENCE
Laser and saline tattoo removal is painful. In fact, we have had several clients report. Read More
UNDO HAS NO INK OR SKIN TONE RESTRICTIONS LIKE LASER TATTOO REMOVAL
With laser tattoo removal, there are many different factors that affect the results. Read More
Never Judge A Patient For Their Tattoos
We always suggest starting out the patient consultation with the question, Which tattoo are you looking to treat today? This question allows the patient to tell their story about their tattoo and discuss their intentions for coming to you.
Patients that want their tattoo artwork revised fit into two categories:
Selective removal patients are looking to erase a part out of a larger tattoo piece. This is a common request for patients with name tattoos. For example, they like the overall design of their tattoo but dislike that it features an ex-boyfriends name. Patients also request selective removal if their tattoo artist botched the artwork in an area or the tattoo extended further than they wished they just want certain parts of the tattoo cleaned up. When performing treatments for selective removal, you likely will need precision to only treat the areas of the tattoo that are desired to be removed usually firing the laser at lower repetition rates will help when treating these specific areas.
Generally, selective removal patients want complete removal of the specific areas they want erased, but sometimes they want it faded in preparation for a cover-up tattoo.
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Truths Concerning Laser Tattoo Removal
It wasn’t long before it struck an additional patient who could not manage expensive surgical procedures either this time a lady looking for treatment for facial acne scarring. She noticed exactly how her dermatologist usage Can Laser Hair Removal Ruin Tattoos
Can Laser Hair Removal Ruin Tattoos
First: How Does Laser Hair Removal Work
Laser hair removal is a procedure that utilises a concentrated beam of light. This laser light damages your hair follicles, minimising and delaying future hair growth. You would need to undergo at least six treatments to enjoy its full results.
Still, after your sessions are over, you no longer have to worry about regular hair removal and hair regrowth!
For more details, read our post on how laser hair removal works.
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Is It Possible To Get Laser Hair Removal Without Damaging The Tattoo
Yes, but the procedure is tricky.
The laser technician will have to make a template to cover the tattooed area, so it doesnt come in contact with the laser. They will also ensure that there is at least two to three centimetres of distance between the treated parts and the Tattoo. This protects the art and avoids the risk of incurring blisters.
I trust this answer. Will laser hair removal damage a tattoo question?
Just to be clear, if you have a tattoo on your arm, for example, and want your underarm hair removed, there are no issues. If you wish to have hair removed in the same area as your tattoo, a trained professional will not let the laser go directly over your Tattoo and ruin the Tattoo. Laser hair removal cannot be completed over the Tattoo without a template to cover it, and the laser must work around it!
Does The Treatment Work As Laser Tattoo Removal Too
Laser hair removal can affect tattoos and inked skin. It can indeed cause permanent damage. Because both laser hair removal and laser tattoo removal use lasers, it may be tempting to confuse them with each other. However, it is dangerous to do so.
Indeed, both treatments use different lasers with varying intensity. Both will make an impact on the ink although lasers used for laser tattoo removal will break the ink particles and effectively remove any artificial color off the skin.
Although tempting to think otherwise, patients must remember that laser tattoo removal is a completely different procedure with a different purpose and with unique characteristics. Lasers used for hair removal are of many kinds: alexandrite, ND: YAG, diode, etc. Lasers used for tattoo removal are Q-Switch devices that deliver energy much faster so that the laser hits the pigment causing it to fragment.
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Familiarize Yourself With The Process Before Getting In The Chair
Just like any other major procedure, invasive or not, you should probably do a quick Google search to see how your treatment actually works. In a nutshell, the laser tattoo removal process is simple: The high-intensity light beam targets ink particles at different layers in your skin to be absorbed and broken down by your body, according to WebMD.
How To Cover Up A Tattoo For Laser Hair Removal
If you still want to do laser hair removal with a tattoo, then experienced practitioners will be able to create a cover for the tattoo and then target the surrounding area, usually keeping around 2-3cm between the tattoo and the lasered skin.
As long as the laser does not go near the tattoo you will be fine. You can ask the practitioner to mark around the tattoo with their white pen as an extra precaution. Medical tape or plasters are not necessary. Although be warned using this treatment may lighten the colour of the tattoo and could still damage the tattooed skin. The most important thing you can do is find an experienced practitioner you can trust.
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All Patients Should Expect Some Level Of Side Effects
We encourage practitioners to not gloss over side effects during the initial consultation explain the various side effects in full detail. This way, when your patients commit to the tattoo removal process, they’re informed and aren’t shocked the next day when their skin is sensitive and they are potentially limited from their normal activities or clothing.
The most common side effects are:
- Hyperpigmentation
- Hypopigmentation
If all of the proper protocols are used based on the tattoo and the patient’s skin tone, all of these side effects are temporary. Redness, tenderness, and swelling typically subside within a day or two following treatment. Blisters usually appear within 24 hours of treatment sometimes the blisters are very large and may look alarming this is completely normal. Scabs, bruising, and blistering may take up to a week or longer to heal.
For patients with pigmentation issues, do not treat at the regular treatment intervals wait until the area has returned to its normal skin tone before treating again. The main risk for permanent pigmentation changes is if the practitioner continues to treat an affected area too aggressively. Even from the start, it is important to treat darker skin tones conservatively using wavelengths that have less absorption by melanin and reduced fluence levels.
Can You Get Tattoo After Laser Hair Removal
Yes, you can! In fact, laser hair removal is a great way to prep your skin for a tattoo. The laser light helps to exfoliate the top layer of skin, making it easier for the tattoo artist to work with.
If youre considering laser hair removal before getting a tattoo, we recommend completing the treatment at least 4-6 weeks before your tattoo appointment. This will give your skin time to heal and the hair follicles time to regrow so that the laser light can target them effectively.
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