It’s is truly unfortunate when you get a tattoo that you don’t like, or when it gets messed up due to an allergic reaction or infection. Luckily, there are many ways one can get rid of an unwanted tattoo, one of which is the laser tattoo removal method.

Laser removal is the best, and most widespread tattoo removal method that is notorious for a few things; it is expensive, and takes too damn long for the clients to start seeing actual tattoo fading and satisfying results.

But, why is that so? Isn’t the modern-day laser technology so advanced that it should take you only one session to get rid of a tattoo? That would be amazing actually, but the reality is far from that. Standard laser removal can take up to 10, even 15, expensive, painful laser treatment sessions.

In the following paragraphs, we’ll explore why does laser removal takes so much time to work and show results. So, if you’re interested, then just keep scrolling!

Laser Tattoo Removal – Quick Insight

Before we get into the reasons for the prolonged results of laser tattoo removal, we must first take a look at the laser machines and the process themselves.

First of all, laser tattoo removal is done using Q-switched lasers. These lasers use the photomechanical effect to target the ink, send infrared energy to heat the ink up, send shock waves and dissipate the ink into the skin. Here’s how the laser works exactly;

• The laser sends infrared light to the skin, where the light reached the tattoo pigment
• As a result, the ink absorbs the infrared light (different ink colors absorb the light differently as well)
• Then, the laser sends a pulse, or shock wave of energy to heat up the ink
• After the ink heats up, it starts to dissipate into the surrounding skin

As complicated as it sounds, these actions take a few seconds in real life, but unfortunately, one shock wave is not enough. The machine needs to send hundreds of these waves into the ink for you to even start noticing that it’s disappearing.