How to proceed to remove your tattoo

TBL Medical loves tattoos, cool tattoos.

Treatment: tattoo removal and laser tattoo removal, as well as price list.

It might be nice to have the name of your first great love with you at all times, but when your current wife's name is Kari, it might be a bad idea to have a big heart with Gerd tattooed on your right buttock.

Well, there are many reasons to regret a tattoo, and you are by no means alone, as approximately 50% of those who get a tattoo regret it within a few years.
Fortunately, there are more options for removing tattoos today than there were just 10 years ago.

In this article, we will try to give you an understanding of how new technology can now effectively remove tattoos that were previously impossible to remove without surgery.

What is a tattoo?

Let's first understand what a tattoo actually is. A tattoo is something that is permanently visible on your skin. A tattoo can either be something you have chosen to get or something you have acquired, for example, as a result of an accident.
Regardless, tattoos are pigments that are permanently embedded in the layer of skin called the dermis. The pigments are inserted into the skin by puncturing the top layer of skin, and then the pigments are inserted into the dermis. Regular tattoos are applied using an electric tattoo machine with needles filled with ink. The needles move up and down in your skin (not unlike a sewing machine or a torture device from hell) and puncture your skin several thousand times in a matter of minutes, filling the skin layer with ink.

Can all tattoos be removed?

The short answer is simply NO!

Tattoos are meant to be permanent, so removing them completely can be difficult. That said, we are well on our way to being able to remove all types of tattoos, but the problem is that there are hundreds of different types of ink that are used.
Some are, of course, more difficult than others. If you get a tattoo in Norway from a reputable tattoo artist, there is a good chance that they will use ink that can be removed.
In any case, the latest lasers can remove a large percentage of tattoos on all types of ink, so most patients will be satisfied.

We now have not just one laser for tattoo removal, but four different lasers, so there is a good chance that TBL can remove your tattoo completely.

Methods for removing tattoos

Before lasers became available for tattoo removal in the 1980s, tattoo removal was expensive, painful, and risky. Three different methods were mainly used for removal:

• Sandblasting – The skin was literally sandblasted down to the second layer of skin, and thus also the layer where the ink is located. You can probably imagine how painful this was and how large and ugly the scars were after such a treatment.
• Cryosurgery – The area was frozen and removed with a scalpel.
• Amputation/skin donation – The doctor removed the skin in the area where the tattoo was and took new skin from other areas.

In a few cases, the above methods are still used, but lasers (Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation) have probably taken over as the standard for tattoo removal.
(In other words, we call this light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. This can be explained simply as the use of a laser to synchronize the radiation to a specific wavelength in order to achieve maximum effect.)

Laser tattoo removal involves minimal risk, pain, and side effects.

Different lasers for tattoo removal

Lasers have thousands of applications and were first developed as early as the 1960s for industrial use. When researchers developed lasers that emit different wavelengths of light in short pulses, lasers for medical use became possible. These lasers can effectively remove tattoos without the risk of scarring.

Previously, the type of laser used depended on the color of the tattoo, with yellow and green being colors that were difficult to remove and blue and black being colors that were easy to remove.

Three different types of lasers have been developed for tattoo removal, all of which use a technique called Q-Switching. Q-Switching refers to the laser's short, high-energy pulses.

• The Q-Switched Ruby laser was the first laser on the market.
• Q-Switched Alexandrite came in second place
• Q-Switched Nd:YAG Nano second laser 1064nm laser is the most commonly used today. We have this in our laser park in addition to the new Pico second laser.

PicoWay Nd:YAG with picosecond delivery (450 pico at 1064 nm and 320 pico at 532 nm) from Synron Candele is the latest and most effective laser for removing most types of tattoos.
PicoWay is the latest laser in our laser park.

How can a laser remove a tattoo?

The laser removes the tattoo by firing short, high-energy laser pulses at the tattoo through the top layer of skin and down to the layer where the tattoo ink is located. The laser targets the area where the pigments are located, so that the surrounding skin without ink is not affected.
The energy from the laser breaks down the pigment in the tattoo into such small pieces that the body is able to remove the foreign substance from the body.
This is a time-consuming process that usually has to be repeated 5-7 times at 6-8 week intervals before all the ink is broken down and removed.

Researchers have determined the wavelength that best removes tattoo ink in different colors, thereby preventing damage to untattooed skin.

Is it painful to remove a tattoo with a laser?

Removing a tattoo can be a little painful, but it's no worse than actually getting a tattoo. Some people compare the pain of removal to a rubber band being stretched and snapped against your skin.
The color of the tattoo and the area also play a role in the pain. Areas with thin skin can be more painful, and black pigment absorbs the laser more and can be more painful.
There are numbing creams available at pharmacies that can be applied to the skin 1 hour before treatment to reduce the pain.
Consult your practitioner for recommendations before using any type of anesthetic or pain relief products.

What can I expect?

For professionally done tattoos, you will typically need 5-7 treatments before the tattoo is gone. For "home tattoos," you will most likely need no more than 2-3 treatments.

After the first treatment, the area will be sore and feel like you have a bad sunburn. As the skin has time to heal, the body will begin to remove the broken ink and the tattoo will gradually disappear.

This article was written by Rebecca Bergetun, who works at Total Body Laser.

Source data: Wikipedia, The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia, Howstuffworks, and Google