The tattoo you got two weeks ago, two months ago, two years ago, or even two decades ago that you thought was permanent can now be removed through a simple treatment process called laser tattoo removal. At RoseHall Medical Aesthetics of Bowie, MD and surrounding areas, we offer treatment plans with the Lutronic™ Hollywood Spectra laser that can safely and effectively remove tattoos of different sizes, shapes, and colors, so patients can achieve uniform skin.
What Is Tattoo Removal?
Tattoo removal uses a laser to remove tattoos from the skin. We offer treatments with the Lutronic™ Hollywood Spectra device, a powerful laser that can target tattoo pigment, shatter that pigment, and initiate a healing response from the body to eventually remove all traces of the tattoo from the treatment area. The process is simple, effective, and can meet the needs of patients with all kinds of tattoo removal goals.
What Are the Treatment Benefits?
There are many benefits to investing in a customized laser treatment plan. Once you complete the recommended number of sessions, you’ll no longer have to feel self-conscious about your tattoo, be reminded of it every time you look in the mirror, or attempt to cover it up with cosmetic products. Other treatment benefits include the following:
- Removing an unwanted tattoo can help patients feel more confident in their appearance
- The tattoo removal process is quick, straightforward, and comfortable
- The laser device can eliminate both smaller and larger tattoos from the skin
- The laser device will also rejuvenate the skin while removing unwanted pigment from the treatment area
The Lutronic™ Hollywood Spectra Laser
The Lutronic™ Hollywood Spectra Laser uses advanced technology and an ultra-short pulse to permanently remove tattoos. The 1064/532nm laser light is safe for all skin types. While this device is known for its ability to rejuvenate the skin, it’s also well known for its effectiveness in eliminating tattoos of different sizes, types, and colors.
How It Works
The Lutronic™ Hollywood Spectra Laser device uses laser energy to lighten and remove tattoos. The laser is attracted to the ink particles, and as the ink particles absorb the laser light, they shatter into tiny particles that the body then eliminates with an immune response through the lymphatic system. This is a process that can take several weeks for the body to accomplish, which is why follow-up treatments must be scheduled with a certain number of weeks between each for optimal results.
What To Expect From the Treatment
Before your treatment, we will provide you with some instructions on how to prepare your skin and what, if any, activities or products to avoid. During the treatment process, the laser device will deliver light energy directly to the tattoo pigment. Patients describe the feeling as similar to a gentle snap of a rubber band against the skin. While the treatment process doesn’t require topical numbing cream, we can discuss applying a numbing solution to your skin before your treatment if that’s your preference. After your treatment is over, the skin of and around the tattoo may appear red, which is a normal reaction to the treatment process.
How Long Do Treatments Take?
Tattoo removal treatments are relatively quick and can take as few as ten minutes to complete, but they can take up to 30 minutes or longer, depending on the size and number of tattoos you want to remove. You can expect to see an improvement in the appearance of your tattoo after each session. It will lighten and eventually disappear.
How Many Treatments Will I Need?
As a general rule of thumb, the larger the tattoo, the more sessions it will take to remove it. Eliminating a tattoo can take several weeks. However, the pre-treatment consultation process will give you the opportunity to ask any questions about this process and allow us to provide more details about what you can expect from your unique treatment plan based on the size, color, and location of your tattoo. The best results come when patients follow a treatment plan with five to eight weeks between sessions so that the body can respond to the laser treatment, flush the pigment particles from the system, and heal the treatment area.
Am I a Good Candidate for Tattoo Removal?
If your unwanted tattoo is detracting from your appearance or is making you feel less confident, you may be a good candidate for tattoo removal. Our laser device can remove the darkest, brightest, and largest tattoos, so you can achieve a uniform skin tone and be free of that tattoo for good. An initial consultation will confirm whether you are a good candidate for tattoo
Removal.
Does Laser Treatment Actually Remove the Tattoo Completely?
Especially for those who have had tattoos worked on in the past with less effective treatments, we often hear concerns about the efficacy of laser tattoo removal. Some people worry that it will leave a faded or blotchy remnant behind that makes the area more unpleasant than before the treatment began.
Rest assured, laser tattoo removal is marked as a monumental stride forward in this area for a reason—it really does remove the entire tattoo with enough sessions and appropriate aftercare. Keep in mind, depending on skin tone, the size and color of the tattoo, and other factors, some will require more sessions than others. It’s also important to note that your immune system can take several months, or more than a year, to fully process the ink particles after they are treated.
What About Side Effects?
Laser tattoo removal patients enjoy a low risk of adverse effects, and the standard effects of treatment are well-managed with conventional (non-prescription) means like cold compresses. However, like any treatment, even something as safe and effective as laser tattoo removal comes with possible side effects.
These side effects include, but are not limited to the following:
- Discomfort: During and for a short time after treatment, most patients report mild to moderate pain. Typically, little more than ice compresses or over-the-counter pain medications are required to manage discomfort. It’s important to confirm the appropriate pain medications with your provider to avoid increasing bruising and other complications.
- Slight skin discoloration: As your body is processing the treated tattoo out of your system, you may notice that the skin is slightly lighter or darker. Thankfully, this is temporary in most cases, resolving as the ink continues to be removed.
- Swelling and bruising: These are acute reactions that last between one and several days, but are often not as severe as when you first received the tattoo.
- Redness: This is also part of the acute reaction, and may vary in appearance depending on your skin tone, the extent of treatment, and other factors.
- Scabbing: A natural part of the healing process, scabbing is a common response to laser tattoo removal treatment. As the scabs naturally come off, they take some of the ink with them.
- Increased sensitivity to sunlight: Skin is thinner and more sensitive in general as it responds to laser tattoo removal, but sensitivity to sunlight is especially prominent. Minimizing your exposure and staying protected is highly recommended.
- Allergic reactions (rare): In a small minority of patients, the breaking down of ink particles may trigger an immune response that produces allergy-like symptoms.
- Infection (rare): Thanks to antibiotic ointment and other important post-op guidelines, infections following laser tattoo removal are very uncommon, but still possible. Monitor for fever (including chills), severe itchiness, and an increase in pain.
As with any other procedure, surgical or otherwise, consistently adhering to all pre-op and post-op guidelines will help to lower your risk of many of these issues. At RoseHall Medical Aesthetics, our highly trained cosmetic surgeons will clearly and carefully walk you through all the steps required to ensure a safe and successful procedure.
Laser Tattoo Removal vs Other Methods
To truly appreciate how innovative laser tattoo removal is, it helps to take a tour through some of the older treatment approaches. Some treatments, like surgical excision, can rival the effectiveness of laser tattoo removal, but with considerably greater downtime, discomfort, and hassle.
On the other end of the spectrum, gentler treatments like topical tattoo removal agents may be easy to use, but are often less effective. Here is a brief survey of these older tattoo removal methods:
- Chemical Peel: The treatment provider uses specialized chemicals to break down and remove the ink from the skin layers. While this can be effective, it causes extensive peeling of the superficial layers of skin.
- Tattoo Removal Topicals: Tattoo removal creams are usually lumped in with other at-home, non-FDA-approved tattoo removal methods, which is to say they are widely discouraged by most. While some of them do contain bleaches or strong acids that could theoretically remove the ink, they cannot penetrate deep enough into the skin, instead causing significant damage to the superficial layers of skin.
- Dermabrasion: Simply put, tattoo removal via dermabrasion is a procedure involving the “sanding down” of skin using a special device. This procedure requires local or general aesthetic, and while it can remove smaller and simpler tattoos, it isn’t as effective for larger and more colorful tattoos.
- Surgical Removal: This is about as direct as the direct approach can get. In this procedure, the skin containing the tattoo is surgically excised, or cut out. Then, the surrounding tissues are stitched together.
Recovery and Aftercare Tips to Maximize Results
While the following recommendations apply to the typical laser tattoo removal case, it’s important to always defer to your provider, as your specific pre-treatment and post-treatment guidelines may be individualized to an extent.
For starters, the circulation-enhancing properties of exercise can bolster the effects of the treatment, but only to an extent. Intense exercise can actually harm results by promoting swelling and skin irritation due to sweating. Also, keeping the tattoo well-moisturized for at least one week prior to your removal appointment can enhance the treatment’s effectiveness.
Typical post-treatment recommendations include limiting exposure to sunlight and extreme temperatures, avoiding smoking and alcohol use, allowing ample time between sessions (at least several weeks), and ensuring you don’t pick at the skin while it’s healing. For more detailed and personalized post-treatment instructions, consult your laser tattoo removal treatment provider.
Invest in Your Skin, Appearance, and Confidence
Don’t let a regretful choice from the past influence how you feel about your appearance today. Our advanced laser device can improve the appearance of your skin, restore a uniform skin tone, and eliminate every trace of that tattoo so that you can start afresh. We can schedule an initial consultation to provide you with more details about this process, what you can expect, and how it can improve your skin.