Page 129 - Blog Posts v1

B5 - What exactly is 'frosting' in laser tattoo removal?
The whitening, or 'frosting', that we often see in laser tattoo removal treatments is often described as 'steam bubble formation on the surface of ink particles'.
While this is true, it is not the entire truth...
When ink particles absorb laser energy their surfaces become very hot (potentially thousands of degrees C).
All these ink particles are encapsulated within cells such as macrophages or fibroblasts. This means that the ink particles are surrounded by tissue water.
Consequently, the tissue water rapidly forms steam, which causes the cells to 'explode' and the ink particles/aggregates to fly apart, at high speed. I wrote an article on this a few years ago.
This is the essence of laser tattoo removal.
However, the melanocytes and melanosomes in the epidermis will also absorb some laser energy - especially the 532, 694 and 755 nm wavelengths, where melanin absorption is quite strong.
Mike’s Blog Posts 129