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For the past few decades, tattoos have gained an enormous amount of popularity. In fact, over 45 million Americans today have at least one tattoo. Interestingly enough, almost 17% of this number also regrets getting them in the first place. Regretful tattoos have a solution, thankfully, and that is laser tattoo removal!
Laser Tattoo Removal: A Friend Or Foe?
Laser tattoo removal has actually been around for quite a bit now, but they’ve also had a bad reputation. Many people are just scared of getting their tattoos removed using lasers because it sounds too dangerous, or people tell them it’s too painful. And of course, there’s the fact that they are incredibly expensive. What does this leave with them? Sadly, crappy tattoos that they’ll have to put up with for life and covering them up with sleeves or other layers of clothing wherever applicable. But believe it or not, laser tattoo removal is perfectly safe and normal. While there are many tattoo artists that can do brilliant jobs at covering up bad tattoos, if you really can’t live with the tattoo, you should go for laser tattoo removal.
In essence, laser tattoo removal is a friend. It helps you get rid of bad memories from the past, along with the permanent memory of the tattoo on your skin. The only way out of a bad tattoo is laser tattoo removal. Thankfully, laser technology today is quite advanced, and contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t hurt as much or require as much effort as it once did. Even the most stubborn of tattoos can be removed easily today with the help of laser tattoo removal technology.
Let’s dive into the top five things one must consider before getting laser tattoo removal!
• The Science Behind Laser Tattoo Removal & Q-Switch
If you think about the science behind laser tattoo removal, it will appear like magic. While targeting the pigment colors in the dermis of the skin (the layer between the epidermis and subcutaneous tissues), the tattoo pigments then absorb light beams, leading to fragmentation. This is then absorbed by your body, and the pigment eliminates them. How cool is that? Of course, there are many types of lasers one can use for laser tattoo removal. The most common of this is the Q-switch, that produces high peak powered light pulses. The Q-switch uses a precise laser with intense light beams that fragment the tattoo pigment almost instantly!
• Get It Altered, Not Removed
Laser tattoo removal is not recommended for Accutane users, pregnant women, or those who have keloiding tendencies on their bodies. Get the green signal from your physician first, but better yet, consider altering the tattoo instead of removing it!
• It Is A Time-Consuming Procedure
This is probably something you should know before considering laser tattoo removal. In order to get into your skin and then out (like how it did when you were getting your tattoo), bear in mind that laser tattoo removal takes quite a bit of time. You cannot wake up one fine morning and expect it to be gone. Since they are designed to permanently stick to your skin, getting rid of them is equally tough and therefore, time-consuming. How long it will take depends on the size, color, and design of the tattoo you got in the first place. It also depends on how quickly you’d recover between sessions. If you’re looking for a ballpark of the estimated time for it to permanently go away, most people would say a few months.
• It Is Quite Expensive
While getting a tattoo, one doesn’t consider how much it’d cost them (at least 4-5 times) to get it removed, if the need arose. Most people know this, but getting laser tattoo removal is not a cheap procedure. Even the smallest of professional laser tattoo removal procedures cost at least $200 a session. The silver lining is that some insurance companies and dermatologists work on a sliding scale, but still, keep in mind that this procedure might end up costing you more than you’d anticipated!
• It’s All About The Artist
The hand of the person wielding the laser should be good- make sure the company you’re going to has good reviews and a decent clientele with good testimonials. Bear in mind that anyone can buy a laser and open a tattoo removal studio, so make sure you do your money’s worth of research!
