Sexy Beauty Secrets Blog

The Quickest Way to Remove a Tattoo

We all make decisions that we regret. Like that time a girl I knew in college got a Chinese tattoo that she thought said "Hope" but really translated into "Socks." Not good. So, what happens when you've had enough of your body art, and want to get it removed?

Derms recommend the route that Heidi Klum is going, having your tattoo professionally removed with a laser. The model started the tattoo removal process since she split with Seal. Looks like she has a long way to go still, but we can see a faint difference from the left to the right shot.

But all this talk about tattoo removal had us asking, "How does the process work?" So, we asked one of our go-to derms to break it down for us.

"One of the most common options, and least invasive, when removing body ink is via laser tattoo removal," says Paul M. Friedman, M.D., a cosmetic dermatologist in Houston and New York and co-author of Beautiful Skin Revealed: The Ultimate Guide to Better Skin. "After the skin is numbed, the laser targets the ink particles from inside of the skin cells drawing them outside of the cells where the body can recognize them as foreign, and then eliminates them. What happens is that your body's own immune reaction recognizes that the ink doesn't belong there and your lymphatic system gets rid of the ink particles, and that's how the tattoo lightens over time."

Turns out there is some exciting news in the world of tattoo removal, which is that there's a new laser in town that's better, faster, and stronger that its predecessors. It's called the PicoSure by Cynosure.

This new "it" laser is much better at breaking up the ink, meaning there is better clearance with fewer treatments, adds Friedman. "It has a shorter pulse duration of light (a trillionth of a second) compared to original lasers that utilized pulses in one billionth of a second. The edge that the PicoSure has on previous lasers is because its pulses are 100 times shorter, it shatters the ink particles better, making it easier for the body to eliminate the artwork," he explains. 

So, how long will it take for you to see results? "A study that just came out reported greater than 75 percent improvement in just four treatments with black ink, and 75 percent improvement or more in one to three treatments with blue or green ink. However, early studies are showing that red inks aren't responding as favorably as the other inks. That said, we're seeing that it's removing all of the most popular colors in half of the number of treatments, so that's promising," says Friedman.

Curious as to whether or not this laser is for you? Talk to your board certified dermatologist who can decide if this is the right route for your removal. And if so, he or she can either do the procedure for you, or recommend a professional who has access to the latest technology.

Just a heads up: Cost varies by location and by the size of the tattoo, but you can expect to pay a anywhere from $500 and up.
Will you be calling up your derm to talk tattoo removal thanks to this new news?



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