Tattoo removal

Tattoos can be wholly or partially removed by cosmetic surgical techniques, most commonly through the use of lasers. The laser reacts with the ink in the tattoo, and breaks it down. After this, the patients body then absorbs the broken-down ink and the skin heals once more. The procedure can be expensive, and very painful (some say more so than the original tattoo) and often requires many repeated visits to remove a small tattoo. It also may not be entirely effective in leaving unblemished skin, due to the fact that tattoos also scar the skin to varying degrees, depending on how the tattoo was applied, the way the skin healed, and the area that was tattooed.

Overall, green-based ink is the most difficult to remove. Black ink is most readily broken down by the laser, and unprofessional tattoos done at home are the easiest ones to remove, due to the low quality of ink used, as well as the inneffective manner in which they were applied. Before the advent of laser removal, tattoos could be (at least partially) removed by (1) loading hydrogen peroxide into a tattoo machine and then retracing the tattoo with the chemical (2) dermabrasion (3) surgically cutting the tattoo out of the skin. However, this method often resulted in a scar that was just as unsightly as the original tattoo.

A newer method of removal is by tattooing glycolic acid into the skin with a tattoo machine, the acid pushes the ink to the surface of the skin in the scab, the scab is later removed. This method supposedly scars less than lasering. Glycolic acid is also used for facial peels; when used for tattoo removal, a lower percentage mix is used.