Permanent Make-Up Removal

With tattoos, permanent make-ups and remains from accidentally introduced foreign material into our skin, laser treatments are the method of first choice for removal of these pigments.

How it works

If a pigment needs to be removed using a pigment laser, we use a Neodymium YAG Laser. It is a so called q-switched laser and has a very short laser pulse of about 20ns. The pigment particles are burst into powder during these pulses,  which is then taken up by specialised cells in our skin and then transported into the lymph nodes. Tattoo treatments are serial treatments, typically with an 8 week interval between the sessions.

The treatment

The sites to be treated are numbed using cream, injections or just cooled down with ice before the laser treatment. After the treatment the area needs dressings and complete UV protection to optimise the result.

Side effects and other information

The treated area may have a colour difference compared to the adjacent skin. UV protection at least 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after the treatment is important. Patients sometimes stop the treatment during the summer months.

Rarely there may be textural changes of the lasered and tattooed skin.

Ideal colours to be removed by laser are black and red. All other colours have different behaviour and their removal is uncertain.

Multicolour tattoos are sometimes best left untreated.