I know there are essentially two steps to it, where the latter part is the ‘zap zap’ gun where you can see the ink lifting and a whitish patch remains (which I hear can be as painful as getting the tattoo). What is it about the laser that helps to lift or burn the ink out of the skin?
In: 5
It actually doesn’t remove the ink. That laser blasts the ink and makes it spread out through your skin and body. Your body can do the rest at that point as far as removing it.
Tattoos stick around because the clumps of ink are too large for your immune cells to effectively attack and remove them. They still try, certainly, and they still make progress which is why tattoos fade over time.
Laser removal blasts the clumps of ink with focused heat so that they break down into smaller pieces which your immune cells can actually handle. It’s a bit like trying to eat a giant jawbreaker and it takes forever because you can’t even fit it in your mouth so you’re just slowly licking it; and then you get a hammer and shatter it into manageable pieces.
Laser removal usually takes several rounds over months to completely break up the large pieces and potentially many months more for your body to fully break down and remove the ink.
Laser tattoo removal works be breaking down the pigment molecules that are trapped inside the skin into smaller pieces, when they’re small enough the body’s immune system can carry away and dispose of the broken down pigment particles.
I agree w those who responded already but Id also like to add that tattooing places the ink deep into the skin which is why the laser is used to blast the ink apart basically. There are differing results on the process as well due to the pigmentation of the skin and the type and color of the ink.
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