Tattoo Removal

How it Works

In order to remove a tattoo, the ink needs to be blasted into small enough particles that white blood cells can absorb and send to the liver so the body can remove it as waste. The only way to do this is by using a pulse of light energy from a laser. To break an ink particle in needs a process called expansion. The heat from the laser is so quick, it blasts the ink with hot then immediately cool to crack it apart. The process is similar to pouring boiling water into an ice-cold glass: the heat of the water causes the inner layer of the glass to expand, but the outer layer takes much longer to absorb that heat. The different amounts of expansion cause so much pressure that the glass cracks. 

For half the tattoo ink particle to remain cool, the pulse of the laser needs to be both very narrow and very fast so that only half of the particle is heated up. Like with the glass, the opposing heat and cool shatter the ink particle into tiny pieces for the white blood cells to transport.