Mike Panic

Passing along from Instagram

Not at all. This may help answer everyone's questions as to "how" it works in kind of simple terminology, PicoSure - How it Works Laser Tattoo Removal. Basically, shorter pulses of light allow the pigments to become "more" efficiently fractured into smaller pieces, thus allowing your immune system to carry them away more rapidly. Looking at the photos they provide, I wouldn't exactly call them stellar, and that's my consumer point of view, not one who operates a laser. The cross removal shows hypo-pigmentation pretty bad (where the tattoo was is now lighter), and some of the comparisons w/ the Q-Switched laser are meh - the one shows 20 treatments w/ a Q-Switched laser, that's excessive. The interesting part to me is that it operates at 755nm, where Q-Switched Nd:YAG lasers operate at 1064 / 532nm, and have the flexibility of also operating at 585 and 650 with a few changes to the hand piece. This allows far more versatility. I'm hoping to head to a seminar this fall in Vegas where I can get my hands on one of these at a convention and really see what the big hub-bub is about.

The technology is shorter bursts of light mean less heat, in turn means less damage to the surrounding skin tissue and yield faster healing with more efficient fading. 2-3x faster removal? That I'm not so sure of. I can't see a tattoo that would normally take 12 treatments being cut back to 6, but maybe down to 9-10, that seems reasonable to me. Pico- - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Nd:YAG laser you're currently being treated with is a nano-second laser, or a billionth of a second burst of light at a time. The Pico will be firing at a trillionth of a second, but from what I've read they both still operate at 10hz

There are a lot of zero's, that's all I will say haha.

@seasam The further along in your process, the less painful it should become. Less pigment = less loud popping sounds during treatment = less pain. I've read up on the Picosure, but being a relatively new business (LLC formed in July, business started in September 2012) our budget won't allow for a laser upgrade for a while. The technology is interesting and I'm sure it will be where we go when the time is right for us.

You're welcome! I'll be sharing more as I film / edit / upload them. There are 3 factors that determine how fast a tattoo fades and what complications you may or may not have with them. Your immune system plays a huge role in all of this. The pigment that was used; more than 1k different non-FDA regulated pigments, what makes them is generally pretty nasty stuff. The talent of the artist who put the work into you. The 4th would be the laser tech and their knowledge and experience. Generally speaking, blisters should be a very rare occurrence and the two main reasons why the happen are: 1. a reaction / allergy to the newly fractured pigment particles in your dermis, again due to what makes pigments up. Sometimes your immune systems quickest way of ridding the body is through the surface of the skin, hence the blister. This is generally the lesser of two reasons you'll blister. 2. an overly aggressive laser tech / one who didn't calculate properly for your skin tone and pigment density. The older method of removing tattoos, using Co2 almost always resulted in blisters and was extremely painful. The further along in your removal process the more aggressive the tech needs to be because the level of pigment left in contrast to the skin tone pigment becomes less noticeable, but you still shouldn't be dealing with massive blisters on a regular basis.

We can show before and after photos, talk about how it's done but I think for anyone who's considering getting a tattoo removed via laser should also probably watch a properly done treatment. YouTube is full of blisters, scabs, scars, bloody messes and all kinds of gross things. It's a shame Google Image Search is also full of the nasty tidbits. I'm sharing this video (and more in the future) not as a promotion of my business but as an informal education to the process, to help answer questions and to be the one who can answer them with my first hand experience both receiving treatments and doing them for clients. This client has several tattoos he wants lightened, all to be covered later. The white frosting you see is water in the skin being vaporized from the heat of the laser (condensed beam of light), it typically will fade within 5-10 minutes post treatment and the tattoo may even look darker for up to two days following treatment. He's agreed to let me record a bunch of his treatments so as he comes in I hope to expand both my creativeness with editing but also loop together one larger, longer video.

I hate to be that guy but the only FDA approved and effective method to remove tattoos is via laser. If you knew what was in pigments, you'd crap yourself, who knows what's in that stuff. Also worth noting, laser treatments are non-invasive. Think about that, tattooing is.

@Kahlan - they said in the video "any where, any size tattoo" - they showed one guy who had a dime sized logo on the inside of his ankle. They went on to say the one sales person had a commission that month of $25k with the tattoo, had they not had the tattoo it would have been around $15k. When you start talking about $10k a month extra, I think most would give up a square inch of their skin in a nondescript place

Watch NBC TODAY Show Employees Offered Money for Company Logo Tattoo | TVGuide.com meh.

I see far less than 50% who "regret" their tattoos, I do see a high percentage of people who aren't happy with the quality of the tattoo and have outright told me they where a cheap-ass with their first tattoo and not that cheap tattoos always have to be terrible tattoos, but it usually means a less experienced artist or apprentice, so lines aren't always as clean as they could or should be. Wow that's a huge run-on sentence, ha.

Looks great. The total number of treatments will depend largely on what your cover up piece is and who's doing it. Most people have 2-5 treatments for cover-ups, waiting a minimum of 8-10 weeks after the last one before getting a tattoo. The good news is you're very fair and the tattoo is all black, so you'll see some pretty dramatic fading about a month after your 2nd treatment. Keep us updated with progress!

Did anyone make it out to this? Our booth was directly across from Alexis Kovacs, Keith B Machineworks, Steve Pearson, Drewski, Timmy B, Big Meas, Jon Mesa & Billy Toler. Had a total blast. Did a wrap-up blog post on our website, Wrap Up: The Lehigh Valley Tattoo Convention | Skindustry Expo | AKA What You Missed | Laser Tattoo Removal | Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

It's a profitable business, but so is tattooing. We just did a 3-day tattoo convention and I'm beyond humbled with how well we where accepted by all the artists attending. A common thing we heard as people passed, sometimes under their breath and sometimes right to our faces was, you guys have some balls for having a tattoo removal booth at a tattoo convention! Those who actually stopped to talk to us about it though, either out of curiosity or because they want treatments found our answers much different then they where expecting. 80% of our business comes from tattoo shop referrals. That being said, it's a tough sell on a $300 cover-up tattoo that the artist is suggesting you get $600+ worth of laser treatments before hand. There is still a large group of people who want "cheap" tattoos - the nice thing now, especially w/ the community that I'm working within, is that people are now appreciating art and willing to pay for it, and pay to have older, unfinished or tattoos that won't fit into a larger, more cohesive piece lightened to get the artwork they really love. It's also a time thing. How many on here (myself included) have a piece that was started over a year ago and we never went back to get it finished? Same happens with laser treatments, sometimes it can backtrack a new tattoo by a year or more.

I've never done it, and it's just that, a method. Essentially, from what I've learned about it, it's waiting 20 minutes after treatment then going over the same area again, then waiting another 20 minutes and doing another treatment. I asked my trainer when learning how to do this and getting certified and he basically told me this: yes, it should work, but your client will be in the office for 90 minutes instead of 15-20, so for a business standpoint it's bad business. More clients per hour = bigger profits. What he said next was more revealing. Lasers don't remove tattoos. They facilitate the body to remove them. Doing multiple passes is supposed to continue the fragmentation of pigment to allow more of it to be carried away by your immune system. The problem with the R20 method, in my personal opinion, is that you're bringing 2-4x the amount of heat into the dermis and causing a larger impact (wound) for the body to heal, not just deal with pigment fragmentation. There's also usually a 2-3x cost increase to do the R20 method. Yes, it may take 6 visits instead of 11 to the office, but you end up paying about the same money. Going through treatments myself, I personally notice more fading between weeks 3-7, and in my case, weeks 12-18 (been a while since my last treatment) they I ever have with a treatment that's between weeks 1-4. It takes the body a while to do its thing, and sometimes time is what you have to give it.

Anyone coming to this?

Great results!

Promo video

Brandi - I have no first hand experience with the procedure however I did find this video after a quick search: I've heard of this new technique of tattooing in ink or "all natural whatever" to remove / vanish tattoos. That video scares me. To properly apply a tattoo, an artist has to hold the machine at a very specific angle, with pressure and a touch that only a proper apprenticeship can give you. The person doing that seems to be in a hurry more than anything. Also, there is no clip-cord cover, which is one of the easiest ways to start cross contamination problems within any tattoo shop. My other main problem with this is that it's invasive. More needles going into the skin. Tattoo removal via FDA approved laser works by focusing a condensed beam of light at pigment and fracturing it, thus creating much smaller particles of ink that the immune system can dispose of. It's non invasive, it's much quicker and has proven results. I'm not totally opposed to new technology or learning, but your tattoo would take about 40 seconds to treat with a laser, probably closer to 5 minutes with this product, and with a tattoo machine (invasive). Depending on the cover-up piece you wanted, you'd be set in 2-5 treatments to have your artist go over it from laser tattoo removal. This invasive cream, I just can't tell you anything about it. For what it's worth, most of my competition locally are dermatologists or "med-spas" who all use similar equipment to us. There is a reason why the Q-Switch Nd:YAG laser is considered to be the standard in removing tattoos.

Here's more numbers, again who knows how the questions are being asked and what segment of the population they are polling: Nearly One-Third Of People With Tattoos Regret Getting One: Study My issue with that article is the word "regret" - I talk to people every day, "regret" is rarely used. Sure, when people find out I do tattoo removal I hear a lot of, "good to know, I have this one tattoo that I'm not fond of anymore..." but that word regret really bothers me for some reason. Like art on the wall in your home or the color of car you drive, some people just change their minds, and that's not always a regretful decision.

Passing along one of the few good reads on the web, from a Dr's point of view on OTC vanishing creams and at-home methods. “We had a patient once who had used salt to try to scrub the tattoo off,” said dermatologist Dr. Amy Derick. "Derick, a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, said she has also seen patients try self-removal methods, including gels and creams. But she said there is no evidence that they work." Tattoo Regrets Lead Many To Take Removal Into Their Own Hands « CBS New York

@SStu - she must have been extremely slow, for whatever reason. That's a REALLY long time. The cooler runs at -35°F, so maybe ask the tech to hold on you for 5-10 seconds before they start running the laser, that may help. I've found with clients the closer to the spine, the more sensitive the area tends to be for removal.

Did they ice you down / do they use a cooler on you? For your first two treatments, was that 45 minutes of actual zapping, or it took 45 minutes because you needed to take breaks? That whole area should be treated within 8-12 minutes, tops, of actual "laser" time.

@Nacho Sauce - that's below national average for pricing - and they are on point about total number of treatments, 10-12, sometimes it's 9 sometimes it's 14. Too many variables over the phone to tell.

Green / Blue / Teal aren't resilient to laser treatments, you just won't start seeing the fading until the technician gets to a point in the tattoo where the joules is more intense. If the tattoo was all blue, you would set the machine up just for that, but I'm guessing you have black in it, so until the black has faded to a point where you adjust the "intensity" of the laser, you won't see a whole lot of progress in that section. There are some facilities that have a "Ruby" laser, which operates at a different spectrum then most Q-Switched Nd:YAG lasers, but depending on the manufacture of the laser and the tech, the Q-switched one can be adjusted to treat those colors successfully. What are you being told for total removal, treatment number wise?