What’s your opinion on the future of tattoo removal? I feel lasers now aren’t a guaranteed 100% clearance and very long process.

Thank you for your question in regards to tattoo removal. The gold standard for removing unwanted ink is laser tattoo removal. Unfortunately it does involve several treatments to achieve desired results and can take up to a few years to complete. With that being said, there is not a faster way to remove/break down ink particles in the skin. Time and patience is key during the removal process. To be sure what is best for you, see two or more board-certified providers in your area for a complete evaluation to make sure you are a good candidate and that it is safe for you to have treatment. I hope this helps

Unfortuately there is no way to speed up tattoo removal at this time. You need to wait for the pigment to come to the surface so that the body can process and eliminate the pigment.  There is a patch that can be used to cut down on the number of treatments  but still need to  wait between treatments for the pigment to be eliminated.  Lasers are becoming much better at breaking down the pigment into smaller particles so that more of the pigment is eliminated and  they now incorporate more wavelenghs to treat more colors.  In our office we use the Lumenis PiQo4 which uses 4 wavelenghs and pico technology to give the best results.