Q: Pastel colored tattoo removal. What are the chances of having it removed completely?

I had a tattoo recently for personal reasons, I am now regretting. It looks nothing like the flower I asked for and in a highly visible area. Fortunately, it’s not “ugly”. What are the chances of having it removed completely or much smaller removing the purple and green? I understand it’s going to be a long and painful process. I’m weighing my options to live with it or removal.

A: Laser removal of pastel colored tattoo

Thanks for your question. Your tattoo includes some “exotic” colors that include less-commonly used inks. It may be difficult to achieve 100% clearance of this tattoo, mainly because yellow tends to be pretty unresponsive to laser treatment.

Of the colors we see, black is the most responsive and usually clears completely with both 1064 nm and 755 nm laser wavelengths. Dark purple usually responds to treatment with 1064 nm laser wavelength. Reddish tones are best treated with 532 nm laser energy.

The best possible laser for treating this mix of colors is the PiQo4 (Lumenis). The PiQo4 is a picosecond range laser and is the most powerful such laser available (2 J of energy)

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