How Long is A Laser Tattoo Removal Session?

Some of the factors that must be considered before starting a tattoo removal session include; skin type, the age for the tattoo, ink color, where the tattoo is located on your body. With all these factors in place, you can be able to estimate the length of a laser tattoo removal session.

1. Skin Type

This is determined by using the Fitzpatrick scale. It is a dermatological scale that was made up of the '70s by dermatologists that rated certain skin types from 1-6; 1 being the lightest skin color and 6 being the darkest.

What will be done is your skin color will be figured out and the laser power settings are factored in accordingly. Patients with lighter skin types will benefit due to their skin being more aggressive to laser power settings. People with a higher skin color scale closer to 6 will require more sessions to get the required results.

2. Quality of ink in your tattoo

The removal of a tattoo will greatly depend on the quality of ink used for the tattoo; is it professional or is its armature.

Professional tattoos are of higher quality, therefore, take much more time to get rid of. Armature or homemade tattoos are much easier to remove because they are made with much lower quality ink than a professional tattoo.

3. The age of the tattoo

For the removal of tattoos, age is a factor that must be considered. It plays a major role in determining how quickly and how successful the process of removing the tattoo becomes.

Older tattoos especially 10- 15 years old can be removed much easier and quicker. Newer tattoos especially not more than a year to get the kind of results you may need.

4. Ink color

From a general point of view, darker inks are much easier to remove. The harder inks to remove would be green and yellow, black and red colors are the much easier inks to remove.

If you, therefore, have a black or all-black tattoo, you will benefit and require much fewer treatments as opposed to a multicolored tattoo.

5. Body location of your tattoo

Tattoos that are further away from the heart or the lymphatic system require more sessions. A tattoo located on your neck will for example not require as many sessions since it is much more vascular.

Therefore, your immune system can remove the ink much more efficiently if it is close to your body's lymphatic system or your heart.

6. The density of the ink

This greatly determines the amount of time it will take to remove the tattoo from the skin. The higher the ink density, the longer it will take to remove.

Multicolored and high-density tattoos take longer to remove than a black and gray shaded tattoo. This, therefore, means that if a tattoo is denser then it will require more sessions and more time to get rid of the tattoo.

7. Scaring

If you have any scaring in your tattoo, then it will generally require more time and more sessions for the tattoo to be removed. This is because it is much harder for the laser to penetrate through the skin if there is any scarring in your skin.

8. Layering

If you have ink on top of ink or cover-ups, those will much more time for the removal by simply there being much more ink density in the tattoo. So the more the number of cover-ups, then the more the number of sessions required for the tattoo to be removed.

Conclusion

Finally, it is really hard to know the exact amount of time and sessions required to get the results that you need. This is why you are advised to get some in-person consultations.

Here, you will go over all the above factors, factor in the price and estimated number of treatments required.