The immediate effect - is that the skin turns temporarily white, this is due to water evaporation and disappears after 15 minutes. The skin may also swell and feel like mild sunburn, this usually disappears within 24-48 hours.

 

Tattoos - are created by thousands of tiny ink particles being suspended in the skin, these ink particles are too big for our body's natural healing system to break down, so the ink formations stay and form tattoos.

 

How it works - In very simple terms the laser fires a intense pulse of light that travels through the skin and impacts with the ink causing it to break up into tiny particles. The bodies immune system then flushes these particles away resulting in the fading and removal of the tattoo.

 

The rapid heating of skin pigment -  causes the white frosting you sometimes see during and after laser treatment. Carbon dioxide is released as a result of laser penetration and surfaces on the upper layer of the skin, which resembles a white frosting.

In the vast majority of cases, this only lasts 5 - 25 minutes after treatment. It is a temporary side effect, which is perfectly normal. White frosting is always evident during the first treatment, once more ink gets removed from further sessions it won’t appear as much.

It might not look very nice, but the white frosting you see is very much a good thing. This reaction indicates the laser is penetrating the ink effectively. And also shows that your body is reacting and healing quickly.

 

Factors that affect laser tattoo removal, depth of ink, age of tattoo, tattooist style, ink colours, skin tone, ink quality, ink type, scarring, cover-ups, sun exposure, tattoo location, size of tattoo, immune system, smoking, type of laser.

 

It can be a frustratingly slow process - 10 or more sessions could be needed to remove the tattoo. The tattoo will become progressively lighter with each treatment.