Austin Tattoo Removal

A common patient question pertains to the type of laser that can be used for tattoo removal. In many cases, our patients may have had other cosmetic procedures before, such as laser hair removal, laser skin resurfacing, or maybe laser fat reduction or body contouring. They wonder if the lasers that we used are the same as other lasers they’ve experienced before. It’s a good question, and there is a relatively easy answer.

Cosmetic lasers are designed to produce certain wavelengths of light that are able to create some effect in the skin. The wavelengths will be absorbed by some element of the skin: melanin (skin coloration), tattoo ink (of a variety of colors), hemoglobin (blood), water, etc. Different wavelengths are absorbed differently by different materials in the skin, and lasers have been designed to address specific elements and ignore (as much as possible) others.

The 1064 nanometer (nm) wavelength is used for many cosmetic procedures, including both hair removal and tattoo removal. It is able to penetrate with some depth into the skin, and not be absorbed by melanin as much as other wavelengths. This wavelength is able to address darker colors of tattoo ink, such as black, purple, and brown.

When the duration of the pulse is very short, it is able to heat up and destroy tattoo particles. When the duration of the pulse is somewhat longer, it is able to heat up and destroy elements of the hair follicle. A q-switched laser is used to produce a very short pulse of energy for tattoo removal. This pulse will generally be several billionths of a second long – some number of nanoseconds. A hair removal laser will have a longer pulse, in the order of milliseconds.

The laser used by New Look is manufactured by a cosmetic laser company called Astanza Laser. They specialize in q-switched Nd:YAG and q-switched Ruby lasers with specific applications in laser tattoo removal.