Tattoos have surged in popularity in recent years… and so it seems, has the demand to have them removed!

Until recently, tattoo removal often required twice as many treatments and results could vary because of a person’s skin tone and the colours in the tattoo, says Australian Skin Face Body Dermal Clinician Fiona Priddle

Australian Skin Face Body was the first skin-and-laser clinic in Victoria to introduce  – PICO Genesis Enlighten III™ – technology, a two-in-one laser therapy targeting stubborn tattoos.

PICO’s tattoo removal system efficiently breaks down ink particles, removing all ink colours on any skin type, including darker and Asian skin tones, in fewer treatments than traditional tattoo removal technologies.

Clients may have deeply personal reasons for wanting a tattoo gone from their lives. Sometimes it’s to erase a visible memory, and sometimes it’s a way to farewell a different kind of trauma. Radiation therapy requires repeated treatments at the same spot. Some cancer patients are tattooed with small marks to make the process more precise. Road trauma victims also use PICO laser to remove coloured marks made by gravel imbedded in their skin.

What do boulders, rocks and sand have to do with tattoo removal?

PICO technology uses laser light to selectively shatter unwanted ink particles and remodel the upper layer of your skin. Different laser wavelengths attract and absorb different colours. Black and red inks are the easiest to remove; green, blue and purple inks are more difficult; and yellow is the hardest to remove. Fiona uses metaphor to explain the challenge the human immune system faces in removing tattoo ink:

‘The ink particles injected in to your skin are larger than your body’s immune system can remove, so immune cells engulf the foreign bodies to keep them from travelling elsewhere in the body. They are the boulders.

‘With our Q-switched laser wavelength [found in Spectra and PICO’s nano-second laser], we smash the boulders into smaller particles – rocks – so our lymphatic system can take them away. But for the best results, we need to break down the rocks into even smaller particles and that’s where our high speed [PICO] pico-second laser comes in. It hits at a much faster speed, shattering the rocks into sand. It’s the pico-second laser which has been a recent game changer in tattoo removal.’

What can I expect during a Tattoo Removal Treatment?

Our Dermal Team uses either PICO Genesis Enlighten III™ or a combination of Spectra’s Q-Switched laser and PICO’s pico-second laser to remove tattoos.

Our Spectra machine is available to clients at our Horsham Clinic. Once the pigment is broken into smaller particles using Spectra’s Q-switched laser, clients can attend our Geelong. Warrnambool or Ballarat Clinics for their final treatments using PICO’s pico-second laser.

Clients at Geelong, Warrnambool or Ballarat l have their tattoo treated initially with PICO’s nano-second laser and then with its faster pico-second laser.

Call your closest Australian Skin Face Body Clinic and speak to our Dermal Team for more information on Tattoo Removal.