Our experience with the Picosure laser and black tattoos has been nothing short of phenomenal. We have treated tattoos as new as 6 months and as old as 16 years and have had amazing results despite age of the tattoo. Due to the popularity of black tattoos in recent decades, most of the tattoos we've seen are in fact black. Some of the tattoos are very dense and dark and we've seen significant fading of those even after 1-2 treatments. Even the dark "Japanese ink" tattoos respond well to the Picosure. We have even used the Picosure on black tattoos previously treated multiple times by older q-switched and nanosecond lasers with superior fading after fewer treatments. I believe the reason for this is the picosecond technology which allows the energy to be delivered in picoseconds which is 1/1,000 of a nanosecond. Imagine a car hitting a brick wall at 1,000mph vs 1mph and that is what the ink particles experience. As a result there is less reliance on thermal effect and more reliance on physical mechanical energy to disperse the ink. As a result, there is more ink scatter and less thermal injury which for most people mean less damage to surrounding tissues, scarring, and pain. At Chicago Breast and Body Aesthetics, we use a BLT numbing cream and Zimmer chiller which reduces the amount of pain tremendously according to our patients who have had the treatment elsewhere.
