Laser removal is the go-to method of removing unwanted tattoos because itâs incredibly safe and effective. However, you may feel concerned about whether side effects can occur, especially if youâre a person of color.
A lot of people with darker skin types think, âLaser doesnât really match with me,â says Carmen Vanderheiden Brodie, co-founder of Removery. They may have seen an example of poorly done laser removal or heard that it can be challenging with darker skin. However, skin discoloration from laser treatment is unlikely to happen with a skilled technician and proper client care.Â
Itâs important to take measures to prevent the two types of discolorationâhyperpigmentation and hypopigmentationâand an expert technician will know how to do that. This article will take an in-depth look at the most common concerns regarding tattoo removal hypopigmentation and hyperpigmentation so you can move forward with complete confidence.Â
With tattoo removal hypopigmentation, the skin in the area that has undergone laser removal is lighter than the surrounding skin. Milder cases have a higher likelihood of clearing up, while more severe cases can be permanentâthough this is usually completely preventable.
*This is not a Removery client.
With tattoo removal hyperpigmentation, the area where the tattoo was removed looks darker than the surrounding skin, similar to sunspots. Hyperpigmentation after laser tattoo removal is usually correctableâthe body naturally eliminates this extra pigment over a period of time. âSome people take three months to remove it; some people take six months, some people take a year to clear it,â says Chelsea. It just depends on how quickly the body can clear the pigment out, which can partly be affected by how healthy the person is.
âHyperpigmentation can be corrected almost every time,â Chelsea says. âIf someone comes in with hyperpigmentation, Iâm generally not very concerned.â
Hypo and hyperpigmentation is not the same as scarring. People often associate laser removal with scarring, but thatâs not really accurate, says Carmen. She explains that when tattooing a client, itâs very common for a tattoo artist to unintentionally cause some scarring that goes unnoticed until the person undergoes laser removal. Oftentimes clients confuse clinical “frosting” seen in videos as scarring this response dissipates over the course of a couple of minutes. During a consultation, the technician can usually recognize any existing scarring and point it out to the client beforehand. âThatâs why we go over that very carefully before we start. Tattoo lasering will not scar you,â says Carmen.
Clients should carefully follow their aftercare instructions by avoiding sun exposure. Going into the sun before or after laser treatment can cause hypo or hyperpigmentation. âWhen that happens, your bodyâs natural healing response is to try and send melanin to the area because melanin is what protects you from UV rays,â Chelsea explains. That creates a brown, hazy look in the tattooed area.
MEDICATIONS
Taking a medication that increases photosensitivity without telling the technician can increase the risk of pigmentation changes by making the lasered area even more sensitive to the sun.
Be sure to tell your technician about any medications youâre taking.
âItâs not necessarily that itâs any more difficult to remove tattoos on darker skin typesâitâs that you need to know what youâre doing when you remove tattoos on darker skin types,â says Chelsea. âBecause a darker skin type has a lot more melanin a lot closer to the surfaceâthatâs what gives it colorâit means that we have to walk a very fine line between making sure the laser is targeting the ink but not their pigmentation.â
Improper operation of a laser could lead to undesired pigmentation changes by accidentally targeting the melanocytes in the skin. Melanocytes are skin cells that produce melanin, which protects the skin from the sunâs rays while darkening the skin. If hypopigmentation occurs, the laser has destroyed the melanocytes in that area, says Chelsea.
âDark skin removal is definitely something that we have to be more careful about,â says Carmen. âThere are more melanocytes present in the skin, and we donât want the lasers to be attracted to those melanocytes and cause hypopigmentation. With a 1064 laser and something that moves at a very rapid pace, you donât have that issue,â she adds.
Laser treatment typically only causes hypopigmentation if an inexperienced technician uses an inappropriate wavelength on a darker skin type, says Chelsea. Itâs also possible for hypopigmentation to happen on lighter skin types, though this is even rarer. âHypopigmentation can happen with lighter skin types if someone is using a laser that is very heat-inducing,â she explains. If a laser is used on someone with skin type 2, which is fair skin, the bodyâs natural inflammation response could cause hypopigmentation after treatment with a heat-inducing laser.
âBecause a Picoway laser goes in and out of the body so quickly, it doesnât deposit a lot of heat, so it is very difficult to cause that to happen with a lighter skin type if youâre using a 1064 wavelength,â says Chelsea. The 1064 wavelength is attracted to the water in your skin, not the melanin. âBecause itâs attracted to the water, itâs not going to interfere with the melanin in your skin,â she addsâat least not unless someone puts the laser on the highest setting and doesnât know what theyâre doing.
âIt can also happen in darker skin types if someone is trying to remove color ink with a wavelength thatâs not appropriate for them,â Chelsea continues. When treating a darker skin color, tattoo removal technicians need to know exactly what each wavelength can handle and how much is too much.Â
Thereâs another important element of the process: knowing how to physically place the laser in a safe way so its pulses donât overheat the tissue. âWith a darker skin type, you have to be very careful not to heat the tissue too much because thatâs when you get pigmentation damage and change.âÂ
How do laser technicians do that? Itâs twofold. They have to use the 1064 wavelength. âThat wavelength is attracted to water in your skin as opposed to melanin, so it kind of sees through the melanin and gets to the ink without causing any sort of damage. You have to have a really skilled technician because itâs a two-part process,â says Chelsea. âThe 1064 wavelength is going to see the ink, but lasers also create heat in the tissue, and with a darker skin type, you have to be very careful not to heat the tissue too much, because thatâs when you get pigmentation damage and change.â
Black is the only color thatâs safe to remove completely on darker skinâand itâs not usually necessary to fully remove other colors. The best and safest solution is typically to lighten them to the point where they become unnoticeable.Â
The 1064 wavelength, which is the safest wavelength to use on darker skin, can remove black from any skin type. With other colors, the technician needs to tread more cautiously. âLetâs say you have a darker skin type with a red tattoo. You have to use a different wavelength to remove red, which is a 532 wavelength,â says Chelsea. âThat wavelength is very attracted to melanin.â The technician could use a 1064 wavelength to reduce the red rather than using the 532 to fully remove the red ink when doing tattoo removal on an African American clientâs skin. By doing so, the technician can avoid causing tattoo removal hypopigmentation by destroying melanocytes.
âMost of the time, once youâve reduced the black from that red on their skin tone, you canât see any remnant of the organic red,â says Carmen. A technician may know itâs still there based on experience, but anyone else wouldnât know that. âThat goes for all colors on darker skin types,â adds Chelsea. âItâs not just red; itâs any color aside from black.â
How many sessions to remove a tattoo on a person with a darker skin tone? Because the ink is being lightened rather than completely removed, it could take fewer sessions than it would for a person with fair skin, on whom even an extremely light tattoo might still show up clearly.
Fortunately, you can prevent these issues and further alleviate any lingering fears by taking the following steps.
âThe biggest thing is to keep it out of the sun,â says Carmen. Freshly lasered skin is susceptible to hyper or hypopigmentation when the sun hits it, she explains. Additionally, avoid very hot showers and exercising for 48 hours. âYou want to keep the body temperature low in order not to cause a blister,â she adds. Apply hydrocortisone cream for five days to reduce swelling, too.
Strong communication with your laser technician is key. âOur clients can avoid this 90% of the time by being upfront and honest with their technician,â says Chelsea. âIf youâve been in the sun, let us know youâve been in the sun. If youâre taking any medications that cause photosensitivity, let us know that.â
âClients need to understand that theyâre in this just as much as we are,â says Carmen. âWe have the laser that breaks down the particles, but we rely on them taking care of themselves and them not going in the sun even more to remove it effectively.â The laser technician can break apart the particles of ink, but then, itâs up to the clientâs body to flush them out. âIf youâre out drinking, smoking, partying all the time, your body doesnât have a whole lot of time to pay attention to the removal process. The healthier you are, the better the results youâll see,â Carmen says.Â
It all starts with choosing the right place for removal. Rather than going to a spa that offers a broad spectrum of treatments, choose a facility that specializes in laser removal. This will help ensure that your laser technician is truly an expert.
âTattoo removal is an art,â says Carmen.
It takes a lot of training and skill, and itâs important to choose a clinic that uses the best available lasers. In tests conducted both in-house and by outside experts, the Picoway laser used by Removery has been proven the safest and most effective way to remove ink from the skin. Itâs the gold standard in laser removal, Carmen affirms.
Are you wondering how to fix your hypopigmentation after a laser tattoo removal procedure youâve already had? In some cases, removing skin discoloration is possible. In extreme cases, itâs usually not repairable, but in some less severe cases, hypopigmentation can be reversed, Chelsea says. âHypopigmentation can correct itself if itâs mild,â she affirms. A mild case usually results from having a little sun exposure but nothing overly harsh. âIt might take six months; it might take a year, but most of the time, it is fixable,â she explains. âYour body will regenerate melanin and, hopefully, reproduce to that area.â
So, how can you get rid of hypopigmentation from laser removal? While removing discoloration from the skin mainly involves waiting for your body to do the work, you can give it a boost with vitamin E cream. âWith hypopigmentation, we have really good luck with them putting vitamin E on twice a day,â says Carmen. That helps with both hypo and hyperpigmentation, Chelsea asserts. âMassaging and creating circulation will help reduce pigmentation damage if itâs not permanent,â she adds.
Tattoo removal hyperpigmentation can be avoided by enacting the proper aftercare however if hyperpigmentation does happen it can be reversed with time, massage the area and using vitamin E oil.
Itâs important to proactively work to ensure the best results in your tattoo removal by making sure you fully understand the aftercare guidelines and following them exactly. Book a free consultation with Removery to speak with an experienced technician about how to achieve your tattoo removal goal.
Weâre on a mission to give you the most straightforward, easy and efficient laser tattoo removal experience. Your estimate will be entirely bespoke to your tattoo; the size, the colors, the ink. It wonât take long and afterwards youâll have a plan to finally get rid of your unwanted tattoo and get back to being you.