Knuckle Tattoo Removal Results

Being Old Has its Advantages | Dispersion. Have you ever noticed how old tattoos look faded and blown out? When a tattoo has been in the skin for over 10 years, your own immune system has time to try and chip away and remove a portion of the ink without the need of laser. Our clients find that the older the tattoo is the fewer laser treatments are required.

Removal Challenge | Scar Tissue

If you look closely at the original tattoo you will see that there are raised spots. Sometimes, when the tattoo is applied by an amateur tattoo artist, scaring will occur if the tattoo machine is not tuned appropriately or if the tattoo does not heal properly.

When pre-existing scaring is present, the tattoo removal process may take longer due to what we call “scar tissue encapsulation.” This is when the tattoo ink is encapsulated in scar tissue. When this happens the laser has to first breakthrough the excess tissue and then needs to breakdown the ink. Only after the ink is broken down can it then be carried away by the immune system. While the laser still effectively breaks down the ink, the body struggles to remove the ink from within the scar tissue.

Do Old Tattoos Take Longer to Remove Than New Tattoos? Older tattoos are able to be removed faster than new tattoos because over time the body tries to breakdown the tattoo ink on its own. At first glance, this tattoo appears to be all black line work, but when taking a closer look you will notice slight green and red pigments left. These pigments faded over the tattoo’s life span of 17 years (luckily).

Removal Challenge #1 Skin Type

Helena is a Fitzpatrick skin type 5-6, which means that she has more melanin in her skin to protect her from the sun. If the green and red pigments remained saturated and vibrant, Helena may not have been able to remove her tattoo completely. Laser tattoo removal clients who are Skin types 4-6 and have any color outside of black can be a challenge to safely remove.

Removal Challenge #2 Ink Color

Red and green ink can be a challenge to remove on darker skin. The particular wavelengths that laser tattoo removal treatments produce make red and greens a challenge. Red ink best responds to the 532 wavelengths, this wavelength is unable to yield safe results on darker skin types due to the melanin absorption. In short, if applied to the skin with high melanin content, it will typically create hyper or hypopigmentation, which is the lightening or darkening of the skin. This condition can be permanent.

Green pigments respond best to a 730 or 785 wavelengths. Much like the 532 wavelengths, these wavelengths can cause pigmentation damage that is unsightly to someone desiring complete tattoo removal.

The teardrop tattoo has a number of meanings. Most people associate it with prison tattoos, murder, gang affiliation, or the loss of a loved one. This client came to Removery's Ink-nitiative Program after spending a portion of his adult life in prison. This teardrop tattoo is an unwanted reminder of the past, the difficulty people have transitioning back into the public is extraordinary. To get rid of this job stopper, our client’s goal was full tattoo removal as quickly as possible.

Removal Challenge # 1 Prison Ink

A large variable in tattoo removal is the chemical composition of tattoo ink. Even in the USA, there is no FDA approval or regulation on tattoo ink. This leads to tattoo removal being unpredictable. Where some ink removes in just a few laser treatments, some heavier synthetic inks can take double the time than their organic counterparts.

Removal Challenge # 2 Amateur Tattoo Artists

When tattoos are applied within the walls of a prison typically they are a product of whatever the “artist” can find.
If this didn’t make the tattoo removal process difficult enough, the machines that are used within prisons are usually homemade, with very little accuracy for the depth they deposit the ink into the skin. Usually, prison tattoos are deposited higher in the dermis than a professional tattoo. This can lead to easier removal as the laser can target the pigment more effectively.

How to Remove Face Tattoos?

This tattoo was removed in 2 treatments. Unfortunately, the photo shown is the progress after only one treatment. Due to the blue hue of this tattoo, we chose to use our PicoWay laser for his first removal treatment. The 755 wavelengths allowed for ideal clearance of different colors, especially the blackish blue pigment with very little post-treatment aggravation.