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  • What Factors Affect Tattoo Removal?
{{ showTranscript ? 'HIDE' : 'SHOW' }} TRANSCRIPT
It depends on a number of factors: the colors of the ink, the age of the ink,
the older the tattoo the faster they respond, and the color of the
patient's skin. People who are more darkly colored or pigmented, black
skin, very dark Hispanic skin, Asian skin, may take longer than it would
take for somebody who's Caucasian, because you have to be a little more
conservative. What you have is sometimes a patient's darker skin may absorb
the laser light, and interfere with the penetration of the laser into the
tattoo, so what you're trying to do is be a bit more conservative so you
don't remove the natural pigmentation of the patient's skin and leave them
too white. Whiteness is something that we do see, it's a loss of
pigmentation after these treatments, but in most cases, it comes back. If
it doesn't there's some things we can do to help bring it back.

What Factors Affect Tattoo Removal?

RealSelf was at the 2013 ASDS meeting to ask some of the top dermatologists in the country your questions. In this video Dr. Roy G. Geronemus speaks about the factors that affect tattoo removal including skin tone and ethnicity.