How many sessions are necessary for removal?
How many sessions are necessary to remove a tattoo depends on various factors. These include the size of the tattoo, how deeply it was engraved into the skin, the choice of colors and also the strength of the body’s immune system. With laser procedures, eight to twelve sessions can be assumed.
A session lasts about 10 to 30 minutes. If a tattoo is very large or very deeply engraved, more time is needed for removal. It should be noted that there must be a certain time interval between the sessions.
In this time the treated skin should recover. In order not to stress the skin too much and to prevent scarring, there can be several weeks between the sessions. Thus, a tattoo removal can extend over a whole year.
Pain during tattoo removal
Even the stinging of a tattoo is felt by many as very painful. Especially in body parts that have a multitude of tiny nerve fibers, the pain can be particularly pronounced. When removing a tattoo, this is no different.
The laser pulses used so far to remove a tattoo penetrate deep into the skin surface and attack the nerve endings. For this reason, the removal of a tattoo causes severe pain. In general, it can be assumed that laser treatment for tattoos with dark colors is much easier and less painful to perform.
The removal of light colors, however, usually causes severe pain. This is especially true for tattoos that contain red parts. In addition to the occurrence of pain, it should be noted that after the laser treatment usually clearly visible scars remain.
The intensity of the discomfort caused by the removal of a tattoo depends largely on the body region. Especially tattoos on the inside of the upper and lower arm can usually only be removed under enormous pain. Also the removal of tattoos on the décolleté is felt by most people as extremely painful.
In addition to the well-tried methods, however, it is now also laser treatments, which allow a gentler removal of tattoos. In this procedure the color pigments of the tattoo are treated with a special picosecond laser. With the help of this laser, the color pigments can be literally shattered with ultra-short, high-energy laser pulses.
Subsequently, the color fragments are removed without residue by the body’s own scavenger cells. The effect of the picosecond laser on the skin surface should cause hardly any pain compared to the original laser treatment. However, a total freedom from pain cannot be assumed. It also remains to be discussed whether the color pigments shattered by this method may contain toxic or carcinogenic components.
