Laser Tattoo Removal Aftercare Guide
Laser Tattoo Removal is a simple out-patient procedure. However, following aftercare instructions is key to achieve the best result. Carefully follow these laser tattoo removal aftercare instructions to help you to lower the risk of undesired side effects. After receiving a laser removal treatment, our patients can expect to see some blisters, crusts, or scabs beginning to develop between 8 and 72 hours after the treatment. It is very rare for scarring to occur, and often times, it happens due to lack of care between treatments. To ensure that your tattoo removal sessions are moving along quickly, our laser tattoo removal clinic has some aftercare tips that you should take into consideration to best protect and heal your skin.
Why Do People Get Tattoos Removed
People remove tattoos for a variety of reasons that usually align with the reason they got the tattoo in the first place. Some people commemorate certain times, people, and beliefs with tattoos. Other people get tattoos on a whim without putting too much thought into it.
Change is one of the beautiful things about being human we change, and at least in the context of tattoos, we have option to change the outside to reflect the inside. Below we look at some of the most common reasons people decide to remove a tattoo.
Why Does It Take More Than One Session To Remove A Tattoo With Lasers
Professional tattoo artists apply ink in layers, so it takes more than one session to remove them. Because lasers break the ink pigment into smaller particles, it then takes some time between sessions for your body to flush out the ink. Your skin also needs time to heal, as laser treatments can sometimes cause swelling, blistering, and can temporarily alter the color of your skin.
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What Is The Most Effective Tattoo Removal Method
Todays top-of-the-line lasersnamely, PicoWayhave the ability to use every wavelength necessary to target every color of ink. While some lasers used widely in the past, like PicoSure, can only break down certain colors of ink, todays more advanced lasers can handle breaking down a much broader spectrum of colors. Thats why laser removal with PicoWay is far more effective than other tattoo removal methods.
How effective is tattoo removal with other methods? You may have heard about tattoo removal creams or other home remedies like lemon juice. Although these techniques may sound harmless at first glance, they can actually expose your skin to significant damage. Exposing your skin to sunlight after doing a lemon juice treatment can even cause burns!
And tattoo removal creams actually peel away the skin using a powerful acid, which can cause lasting scarring. Furthermore, these treatments dont actually eliminate the ink from the dermis, the deeper layer of skin where it is located. Its not just a matter of wasting time and money on such methodsits a matter of causing permanent damage.
What Are The Possible Side Effects
If you go to a reputable professional referred by your doctor, there are minimal side effects to laser tattoo removal. However, you should consider the following factors in your decision:
- The tattoo removal site can become infected.
- There is a slight chance that the treatment can leave a permanent scar. In some cases, they have been known to develop three to six months after the procedure.
- Some degree of skin discoloration is possible. The treated skin may either be paler than the surrounding skin or darker than the surrounding skin .
- Cosmetic tattoos, such as lip liner, eyeliner and eyebrows may get darker after initial laser treatments. You might have to have additional treatment to achieve fading.
You should never try to remove your tattoo yourself or use any form of home remedy for removing tattoos. At best, they will be ineffective. At worst, they could be dangerous to your health.
Tattoo removal at a tattoo parlor or spa, while perhaps safer than home remedies, still carries some risks. A trained dermatologist can better consider your overall health and more responsibly guide you on the safest treatment plan.
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How Does Cutera Enlighten Work
This one-of-a-kind non-thermal laser uses photo-mechanical power to target cell pigmentation and shatter it while leaving the surrounding cells and tissue untouched. During your session, we direct the laser to the tattoo, and it penetrates the skin with a light beam.
When this beam of light interacts with the ink, it breaks the ink down into tiny, fragmented particles. As the ink particles break down, the inked lines and colors break up. Clear, tattoo-free skin appears after repeated sessions and repeated exposure to the particle blasting laser.
This technology works with the size of the ink particles. We use nanosecond pulses to break up large ink particles, and picosecond pulses to remove the particles altogether. While the laser rids the skin of pigmentation, its also working double-time to deliver deep skin restructuring. Removing unwanted tattoos with Cutera Enlighten reveals gorgeously clear skin where your ink once was.
No other tattoo removal laser offers the precision results of the Cutera Enlighten. Along with most other experts, we consider it the safest, fastest, and most effective laser for removing tattoos and correcting melasma and other skin pigmentation issues.
How Can I Remove My Permanent Tattoo Without Laser
Overall, to remove a tattoo without lasers, you can head to Tattoo Vanish they will numb your tattoo area, bring the ink to the surface of the skin, and apply their Ink-Eraser, all in under a half an hour! If you need a tattoo removed and dont want pain or mess, tattoo removal without lasers is your best bet.
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Can You Shower After Laser Tattoo Removal
Once you remove the bandage, you can shower and wash the treatment area. However, you should avoid high-pressure water. Clean the area gently with mild soap and pat dry.
Dont soak the area until its completely healed. Avoid baths, hot tubs, and swimming pools, as all of these can increase your chances for infection.
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The Healing Process: What To Expect After Tattoo Removal In Nyc
Not every tattoo ends up looking as we expect, and some individuals who get tattoos may otherwise realize later on that they would rather not have a specific tattoo on their body. Tattoo removal in NYC provides individuals with the choice to remove an unwanted tattoo by undergoing a simple, effective process using state-of- the-art tattoo removal technology.
After you have undergone your tattoo removal procedure, it is important but also helpful for your own sake to be aware of what you can expect during the healing process. Although laser technology such as PicoSure has made innovative strides as an increasingly efficient tattoo removal method, there are still some effects that you may notice following your procedure.
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What Else Can I Expect Within The First Few Days
Your treated skin will evidently be the most tender the first few days after receiving your procedure of laser tattoo removal in NYC. Your practitioner will have placed a bandage over the treated area, and it is important to not fuss with this as it can irritate the treated skin.
You will want to wait until day 2 or at least 24 hours after you have undergone the procedure before showering or soaking your skin. When you do shower, try to keep the treated skin out of the direct stream of water.
Following the first day of keeping the bandage secured on your skin, you will want to keep the skin uncovered as much as possible during the second day. This will allow the healing area to breathe. Do try to keep the treated area clean to the best of your ability.
Blisters may develop on the treated area between one and three days following your procedure. This is normal. However, do not pick or otherwise irritate these blisters, as they will drain and dry into scabs on their own. Avoiding unnecessary contact with the scabs is recommended as well in order to avoid irritating the skin. These scabs commonly fall off between 10 14 days after your treatment.
The Basic Laser Tattoo Removal Process
During a laser tattoo removal procedure, the practitioner guides a laser over the area of the tattoo. Unlike a laser pointer that produces a continuous beam of light, tattoo removal lasers produce pulses of light energy.
Each pulse of energy penetrates the skin and is absorbed by the tattoo ink. As the tattoo ink particles absorb the energy, they heat up and then shatter into tiny fragments. Then, over the weeks following treatment, the bodys immune system flushes the tattoo ink particles away from the location, lightening the appearance of the tattoo. Each laser treatment breaks down more and more of the tattoo ink until none remains.
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How Much Does It Cost To Remove A Tattoo
Cost can depend on the size of your tattoo, how colorful it is and where you live. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery puts the average price tag of removing a tattoo at $463 per session. Other estimates range from $200-$400 per session, depending on your location.
Healthcare providers that remove tattoos might ask you to pay the full amount at the time of the procedure. If you are considering tattoo removal, be sure to talk to the provider about all related costs before having the procedure.
Know That The Process Could Leave Scarring
If, like me, you want your ink completely removed, you should know that the skin that is left might not be flawless. While the risks are nowhere near as big when you are treated by a removal specialist or medical professional, your skin pigment can be lightened. Which, again, is all the more reason to refer back to the first point on this listgo to a qualified doctor or specialist.
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What Tattoo Ink Colours Are The Easiest To Remove
The ink colour in your tattoo determines how many treatments youll need. Certain colours need more treatments than others.
If you think about the colour spectrum, black absorbs all wavelengths. And absorbs the most heat. Whereas white retracts all wavelengths of light. And absorbs the least heat.
Therefore black and darker ink tattoos are easiest to remove. In this video, I will be discussing this in a bit more detail.
Important to understand that everyone is different and reacts differently and every tattoo is different.
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-boyfriend’s 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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What Can I Expect Immediately After Laser Tattoo Removal
Redness, swelling, slight blistering, a little itching, and raised areas are extremely common and should be expected after treatment. The skin will feel tender and sensitive at first. It should take a maximum of two weeks for all of these responses to treatment to subside.
Fifteen minutes after removal, the area will be very red, swollen, and sometimes a little itchy. It will stay like that for a week or so. I always tell clients when I treat them, dont be alarmed at how red it gets thats totally normal, says Cooper. But by the day after treatment, it wont be painful. Even after the treatment, clients are usually feeling just fine. You can tell that theyve undergone laser treatment, but its not going to hinder them from going about their daily lives.
You may also notice a frosting effect immediately after laser removal, which gives the tattooed skin a chalky appearance. This completely normal effect just signifies the release of carbon dioxide from the skin. This temporary reaction usually only lasts for a few minutes to half an hour after laser removal. If it takes longer than that, contact your removal specialist, but thats very unlikely to happen.
What Should I Know About Tattoos And Tattoo Removal
Tattooing is an ancient art. The word is derived from the Tahitian word tattau, meaning to mark. Its estimated that more than 25% of the U.S. population has a tattoo, and nearly half of millennials have one.
While the popularity of tattoos is on the rise in recent years, so too is the number of people seeking to remove them, according to the American Society for Dermatological Surgery. Reasons for removal range from a change in job or lifestyle or because they simply no longer like the tattoo.
But heres the rub: because the permanent ink granules from professional tattoos were injected below the skins surface when it was applied, removing a tattoo is far more complicated than applying one. It will normally take a few sessions of laser therapy to do the trick.
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How The Laser Affects The Surrounding Tissue
Laser technicians are highly skilled at using the appropriate wavelengths to target only the tattoo ink. When treated by a skilled technician at a reputable facility, you wont have to worry about damage to the surrounding tissue. In the process used, called selective photothermolysis, the lasers energy is attracted only to the ink particles rather than the surrounding tissue.
Does Laser Tattoo Removal Have Major Health Risks
There are minimal side effects to laser tattoo removal. However, you should consider these factors in your decision: The tattoo removal site is at risk for infection. You may also risk lack of complete pigment removal, and there is a slight chance that the treatment can leave you with a permanent scar.
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Wavelengths For Tattoo Removal
Tattoo removal lasers produce specific wavelengths of light that have been proven to be absorbed by certain colors of tattoo ink while avoiding damage to surrounding skin tissue and chromophores . When the laser energy is applied for the right length of time, at the right level of energy, and in the proper wavelength, the tattoo ink is selectively targeted.
Each wavelength effects how tattoo removal works and corresponds to a certain range of tattoo ink colors, which why different types of tattoo removal lasers are available. The most popular wavelengths used for tattoo removal are 1064nm and 532nm, which can both be achieved with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.
Offer Skin Numbing To Keep Patients Feeling Happy
The most popular numbing method is a Zimmer Cryo 6, which is a powerful chilling machine that blows cold air on the skin before, during, and after treatments. It’s highly effective and an asset to busy practices that need a solution that is fast and easy-to-use.
Other options for numbing include good old-fashioned ice packs, lidocaine injections, or topical numbing creams. Each numbing method has its pros and cons. We have a blog post dedicated to the topic of pain management for this procedure: Skin Numbing for Tattoo Removal Treatments
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Can A Tattoo Be Removed In One Session
Depending on the size, coloration, depth, and age of your tattoo, the effects of the laser may not be as noticeable as you expect after one session. How prominent the results are will depend on the tattoo. Hearing this news is often disappointing to clients, but the sooner you start your treatment, the faster youll see the results you want.
One way to track treatment progress is to photograph your tattoo before and after each treatment and again a few weeks later. This gives you a visual record of how the laser removal process is working. One treatment may be sufficient for your removal needs, but it may take more than one treatment to reach your aesthetic goals.
Answer: Tattoo Removal Process
It used to be that if someone wanted to remove a skin tattoo, a surgeon excised it with a scalpel, usually in increments to help the tissue around it expand and cover the wound. Today, we can use laser removal. Laser technology has made great strides in eliminating tattoos. The laser’s short pulses of intense light pass harmlessly through the top layers of the skin and are absorbed by the tattoo pigment. This causes the tattoo pigment to fragment into smaller particles that are then removed by the body’s immune system. With the array of state-of-the-art lasers, these all help to remove tattoos of all colors, shapes, and sizes, but it will take several treatments. If a tattoo is very deep, there may be some scarring. But the method is far superior to that used in the old days, when we had to remove it surgically.
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