Page 108 - An Introduction to Laser Tattoo Removal

Chapter 2 – Fundamentals of Laser Tattoo Removal v1.0
Adopting such an approach may require a change in your business model when it comes to charging for your service, but it will also result in fewer visits and less potential skin damage...
Coloured Inks
The problem with coloured inks is that humans are not good at properly perceiving colours! We might see a colour which appears to be ‘green’ but is in fact made up of yellow and blue inks. This has a significant effect on all laser treatments.
Hence, we should not assume that the colour we ‘see’ is the real colour. Mike wrote a blog post on this topic.
Clearance Rates across the Body
Many laser operators have reported a variability in the rate at which tattoo inks appear to clear across the body. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has not been a proper clinical study into this topic. So, we need to rely on anecdotal evidence for now.
It appears that the rate of ink clearance depends on a number of factors including the state of health of the individual, their exercise and dietary regime and various other issues.
However, one fairly obvious factor is the distance of the tattoo from ‘the heart’ – as is anecdotally reported. It appears that the greater this distance, the slower tattoos appear to fade. This may be due to poorer circulation of lymph and/or blood in those regions, particularly in the feet area.
As we said above though, there is no hard clinical evidence as yet. But it is worth considering when discussing treatment plans with new patients.
Some ‘DO NOTs’!!!!
1 Never ‘pull away’ the handpiece from the skin surface!! With many laser systems this invariably reduces the spot diameter so that higher fluences impact the skin. This can easily exceed the safety limit for the skin and lead to irreversible skin damage!
2 Never remove your, or your patient/client’s glasses, until the laser is “disarmed”, or “off”.
3 Never look down the ‘barrel’ of the laser handle – this is dangerous!
4 Do not ‘chase’ the frosting – this is not necessary.
5 Do not ‘chase’ the ‘crack’ or ‘snapping’ sound – this is also not necessary.
6 Never point the laser handpiece towards anyone’s face (unless you mean to)!!!
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Chapter 2 LEVEL A Laser Tattoo Removal
© The Laser-IPL Guys, 2021