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B2 – Laser Tattoo Removal – the important considerations
Laser tattoo removal has been available commercially since we opened the world’s first private clinic to offer this treatment in Glasgow, Scotland in 1989 following our ground- breaking clinical research program in Canniesburn Hospital, Glasgow during the 1980s (see our 1990 publication in the British Journal of Plastic Surgery). We used the Q-switched ruby laser which predated the Nd:YAG and alexandrite lasers to successfully treat a range of multi-coloured professional and home-made, amateur tattoos.
There is a lot of information available these days on the internet which can be helpful and a hindrance. It’s a bit of a minefield with all sorts of claims, some of which are real and some which are just nonsense (even from some of the major laser suppliers!!)
This post will, hopefully, help to clarify how laser tattoo removal works.
In essence, laser tattoo removal aims to alter dermal tattoo ink, which is usually found encapsulated within macrophages/fibroblasts in the dermis. This alteration will result in thermoelastic waves which fragment ink aggregates such that the smaller particles may be removed from the site by macrophage activity into the lymph system, over subsequent
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