how does laser tattoo removal work?
In: Biology
A tattoo is little drops of ink placed under layers of your skin, a bit like a printer prints.
The laser heats those little droplets of ink so they burst and become smaller drops.
The smaller drops are less visible, and some of them will be absorbed into the bloodstream completely, going away.
Follow on treatments aim to make the remaining ink smaller, until eventually it is all either absorbed or too small to be visible.
Tattoo ink is big particles. Too big for the tiny capillaries in your skin to transport away, and too hard for your immune system to break it apart – so instead your immune system just builds a tiny wall around it and forgets about it.
Laser removal breaks up the ink particles (and the wall) so they’re small enough for your immune system to break down and your capillaries to carry away. Mostly. Some particles don’t get small enough, some walls stay intact, so it usually takes a few tries.
But a laser heating up the particles enough to break them, also burns the skin. Quite a bit. It hurts, and you can’t do many passes at once, or else you get a burn and scarring.
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