How does laser tattoo removal work?

To understand why tattoo removal can be painful, it's essential to grasp how the process works and what it entails.

When a tattoo is applied, the ink is inserted deep into the skin by needles. Your immune system will recognize the ink as an invader in your body. Like any other skin injury, white blood cells will rush to the area to protect the body. Although this will be a very slow and prolonged process, the white blood cells will attempt to break down the ink.

They will also transport small fragments of the ink to the liver, where the ink will be processed and eliminated. However, the ink particles are too large for these small cells to remove them entirely. Therefore, the body cannot remove the tattoo on its own without laser treatment to break the ink particles down into smaller pieces. The only way to effectively remove a tattoo is through the use of lasers.

The laser we use is called the Q-terra Q10, which sends ultrashort laser pulses that break apart (or shatter) the ink particles in the skin. This makes the particles smaller and easier for white blood cells to manage and eliminate. Our laser generates a high temperature, which is necessary for breaking down the ink. The laser operates at an extremely fast speed, some as quick as a billionth of a second (nanoseconds).

The speed of the laser plays a crucial role in how effective the removal process will be. In fact, the laser beam must be fast enough to heat one part of the ink particle while allowing the other part to cool. This way, the ink particles are forced apart due to the differing temperature changes. Some refer to this process as "exploding" the ink particles through a thermal effect.