Posts Tagged ‘green tattoo’

Why are Green and Blue Tattoos Difficult to Remove?

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

In the field of laser tattoo removal, most colors of tattoo ink can be removed completely: red, black, purple, brown, orange, pink, and several others. However, a few colors are very difficult to remove completely, no matter what laser is being used. Blue and green are the colors most frequently seen as impossible to remove completely, although in some rare cases (very old tattoo, a tattoo that is already very faded) completely removal may be possible.

Here’s the physics explanation of why: matter absorbs certain wavelengths of light, reflects others, etc. Regarding the visible spectrum of light (color that we can see) certain objects like an apple absorb all colors and reflect back red. The apple isn’t really red, it just appears to be red. The same with tattoo ink – a blue or green pigment particle that makes up a tattoo absorbs a range of colors and reflects back that color that appears to our eye.

Tattoo removal lasers generally use wavelengths of light that are not able to be absorbed by the pigment in blue and green tattoos. It is the absorption of energy by tattoo ink that causes the ink to heat up very quickly and shatter. The Medlite C6 has dye handpieces that are able to do a modest job of removing blue and green ink, and the Affinity QS can be used in a way that will also provide modest fading of some blue and green ink.