No doubt, if you have ever mentioned the word tattoo out loud, anywhere, someone has poked their nose up and unhelpfully said, “but that’s permanent!” First, duh. Second, while tattoos may be deemed permanent, current removal processes are highly effective at dissolving those artistic mistakes we excitedly, and voluntarily, placed on our bodies.
Laser tattoo removal does work, and it is the safest and most effective way to get rid of any unwanted ink. Whether you need to get rid of Tonya, to make room for Jenny, or finally get rid of that Marvin the Martian tattoo on your butt that hasn’t aged well, science suggests using lasers. Trust us. And if you can’t trust us, trust the science. It’s all in there.
The Science Of Ink
Permanent tattoos have been around for at least 10,000 years. Did you know that tattoos were discovered on the body of a person who lived over 6,000 years ago? The tattoos went so deep that the designs showed up on the remaining bone. And this was charcoal rubbed into cuts in the skin. But guess what? If that man were still walking around today, science could still help a brother out.
We shed almost 40,000 skin cells every hour and our epidermis completely regenerates itself every 27 days. This means that the skin we see in the mirror right now is not the same skin we saw last month. But that’s just the outer layer and something is going on underneath. So, with this in mind, how does the process work?
Chemical compounds and heavy metals, such as lead, copper, and manganese, make up many of our inks. When the ink is inserted into the skin, it goes way beyond epidermis, into the deeper layer, called the dermis, which does not shed. This simple fact is the exact reason why creams do not work. They cannot reach such a deep layer.
The tattoo gun pierces your skin very quickly, anywhere from 50-3,000 pierces each minute, and this causes an inflammatory reaction in that area. Macrophages, or the skin’s rescue cells, treat the ink as a foreign object, and they attempt the get rid of the ink. Unfortunately, for the macrophages, they fail to clean out all the ink, no matter how hard they try. The remaining ink particles rest in fibroblasts where they become permanent.
Permanent Means ‘Hard To Remove’
Removing a tattoo isn’t easy, just ask science. Your skin is the largest organ in your body, and it’s tougher and thicker that you think. The dermis is the thickest layer of skin, and it contains nerve endings, oil glands, and hair follicles. The purpose of the epidermis is to protect this layer of skin, making the dermis very hard to reach.
There are many products out there that make dramatic claims about getting rid of your ink, but not a single cream has been found effective. Science says no to tattoo creams and so should you. The ink is stubborn, it had to fight off those macrophages for territory, and it doesn’t want to give it up.
Listen to science: laser tattoo removal is the safest and most effective practice for tattoo removal.
Lasers That Have Nothing To Do With Austin Powers
Much like injecting your skin with ink from the needle, lasers are very powerful beams of light that can penetrate every trillionth of a second (picosecond). The laser is made of concentrated light particles that produce heat, and the heat can be extreme. These layers can easily reach the dermis to combat the ink that makes up your tattoo.
The ink that remains in your fibroblasts are the laser’s nemesis and the heat from the laser causes the particles to expand. Each laser is powerful enough, and precise enough, to hit half of each skin cell. When one side of the skin cell is hot, and the other is not, the skin cell will break apart, which is called photothermolysis. You could compare the process to laser hair removal.
Every skin cell that breaks into particles, or smaller pieces, can be absorbed by your body and cleaned out of your system. The laser is just reinforcing your body’s natural process of eliminating foreign particles, which it couldn’t do while the cell was whole. Your white blood cells absorb the ink particles and the liver then removes them from your body.
Uncomfortable, But Worth Every Second
The science behind laser tattoo removal is exact and very powerful. It’s the only real option that you have to get rid of unfortunate body art. It isn’t easy. The tattoo ink was created to be permanent, to last forever, so it takes a powerful force to eliminate the ink. This means it will take time, and you will, more than likely, have to complete multiple sessions for complete removal.
The cost and number of appointments will depend on the size, age, and density of your tattoo. You will go through a session and then heal for a number of weeks before another session. You don’t want to cause further damage to your skin and waiting for it to heal will show the technician exactly where to point the laser. Again, science agrees.
How About A Risk-Free Consultation For More Specific Information
When you decide that you are ready to remove an unfortunate tattoo, you need an experienced and trustworthy professional with proven results. The best thing you can do is to contact us to schedule a free consultation at Ink-B-Gone, the leading laser tattoo removers in Colorado. Our amazing team, along with our friend Science, will get rid of that unsightly tattoo, giving you clean and clear skin.
The cost of removing a tattoo is different for everyone, and it will probably cost you a little more than what you paid for the tattoo in the first place. But it’s totally worth it. Our team is always available to answer any questions and we will always be honest with you about what to expect.
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