Picosecond laser treatments will provide the quickest tattoo removal. The blue color may respond best to the PiQo4 laser (1064 nm). If there is any green (or blue-green) the PicoSure laser (755 nm) would likely work better. You can’t always tell in advance because there are many tattoo inks in use (up to 300), all with different chemical composition. Sometimes inks are mixed together and the tattoo color changes as one ink fades faster than the other. We have both of these lasers and use them to optimize treatment of multicolor tattoos.

Black ink is effectively treated by both of these picosecond lasers. There is a little bit of red in the blue butterfly; red will require PiQo4 at 532 nm.

Robert Langdon, MD,GuilfordDr. Langdon, The Langdon Center