How Does Tattoo removal work?
Permanent Tattoo removal using laser
Nowadays tattoo removal can be done easily using lasers. A permanent tattoo consists of various colored particles that are placed within the skin. These particles can be removed with the help of lasers. Lasers can emit light of different wavelengths. The colored particles absorb these wavelengths of light, get heated up and break into smaller pieces. This makes it easier for the immune cells to consume them and remove them from your skin. And that is how the tattoo gets removed.
Is Laser use harmful to our skin
The lasers used to remove tattoos use pulses of light at high intensity rather than continuous beams of light. The color particles are very small in size and hence need to be heated for a very short period to warm up and explode. Compared to these colored particles, a skin cell is very large in size and needs to be heated for longer duration and higher intensity light for them to be destroyed. Hence the skin cells are not damaged during the laser removal process.
The Science Behind Laser treatment
Each color absorbs only a specific wavelength of light. Hence for every color, you will need different lasers having the required wavelength. For example, a red color particle appears red because it absorbs wavelengths of green light and reflects wavelengths of red light. So to remove a red color tattoo one has to subject the color particles with the light of green color. The black color is the easiest to remove because it can absorb light of any wavelength. But the rest of the colors will be required special lasers that are specific to that color.
Total time required to completely remove a tattoo
The complete tattoo removal process will take a couple of months. One must undergo laser treatment five or six times for achieving complete remove. The treatments must be a couple of weeks apart. A tattoo color is present at several layers below the skin. In the first laser treatment, the color particles at the top layer are broken down into smaller particles. The body will take a couple of weeks to clean up these small particles and results in the exposure of the lower color particles. In the next treatment, this exposed layer color particles are broken into small particles. This process continues till all the color particles are removed.
The time gap between treatments is beneficial for the Patients
Patients need to wait for a couple of weeks between treatments because the body takes time to flush out the shattered color particles. Phagocytic cells (part of our body’s immune system) work to move the shattered particles from beneath our skin to our lymph nodes. The lymph node filters our substances that do not belong in our bodies. This entire process is slow and hence it is beneficial to wait some time for the laser treatment to give maximum results. Also, the body can use this period to heal itself of any blisters that the treatment might have caused. Overexposure to lasers can result in unwanted side effects.