Tattoo removal

Tattoo removal:
Tattoos are developed  with  different colours.
Tattoo made by India ink or graphite are easy to remove.
But tattoos made by green,yellow and orange inks are resistant to laser treatment.
Black tattoos show good response to laser therapy.

Methods to remove tattoo:
1) Deep cryotherapy
2) CO2 laser vaporisation
3) Salabrasion
4) Dermabrasion
5) Topical agents
These methods can cause scarring as side effect.

Lasers are good option but recurrence or incomplete removal do happen.
Mechanics behind laser:
Pigment in dermal phagocytes is exposed to temp upto 300 degrees in nanoseconds. This leads to rupture of cell and alteration of chemicals.

Remember:
Red tattoo should be treated by green laser (Q-switched Nd YAG) 532 nm
Green tattoo must be cleared by red colour laser ( ruby 694 nm) or alexandrite laser.
Different colours need to be treated with appropriate corresponding wavelengths of laser.

Multiple sessions of laser are required.
Immediate side effect:
1) Immediate whitening of skin over tattoo is end point of laser therapy.
This will disappear few minutes after cessation of laser treatment as gas bubbles of laser settle down.
2) Epidermal pigment cells also suffer in laser treatment so transient hypo pigmentation occurs.

The risk of scarring from Q- switched laser treatments is approximately 5 percent.