Laser energy splits the colored particles in a tattoo into portions small enough to be removed by the body’s scavenger cells.
Different wavelength are required for different colors for optimal absorption and energy transfer.
However, part of the laser energy is also absorbed by the skin’s melanin (dark pigment) producing cells and may ultimately kill those cells. Likelihood of this happening is higher for darker pigments e.g. “tribal tattoos”, ink etc.
Death of pigment producing cells during laser tattoo removal in dark skin types is permanent and leaves light patches, which are very discernible in all skin tones except light caucasians. The light patches may be improved by epidermal overgrafting, a technique used to treat the light spots in a disease called vitiligo, where pigment producing cells die. Very expensive technique.
So if you have dark skin ask yourself if you prefer the tattoo or a light patch the shape of the tattoo on your skin when you consider laser tattoo removal. This is a technique exclusively applicable to light skin tones. Period. No need to think about it any longer if you skin tone is dark, say Fitzpatrick IV or higher.
Unless you want to try Trinidad Institute of Plastic Surgery’s exclusive SafeTatt2X method …
Visit the Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery Forum ! Or contact us to start the journey !
Trinidad Institute of Plastic Surgery – the superior choice for tattoo removal in dark skin in the Caribbean, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Miami, New York, Toronto, London