If you have a tattoo you no longer want and you have looked at laser removal, you will know how expensive it is. Depending on the tattoo, between ten and twenty treatments are required for complete removal, with an interval of around six weeks between sessions. The cost can run to thousands, and take months to accomplish. At home, or do-it yourself methods are becoming increasingly popular.

How To Remove Tattoos Yourself.

TCA (Trichloracetic acid) peels are a cosmetic treatment used to remove fine wrinkles, acne scars, age spots and other skin blemishes and is a very effective method of tattoo removal. A solution containing around 20% TCA is applied directly over the tattoo. This causes a controlled inflammation to the top layers of the skin, which will begin to peel away about a week after the treatment, revealing a new layer, which has formed underneath. With each peel, the ink is gradually broken up and moved toward the surface with the newly formed skin. This new skin will be sensitive for the first few weeks. You will need to wait between 4 and 6 weeks between peels, and protect It from the sun until it is fully healed. If you have darker skin, the treated area may appear lighter after a peel, but will soon return to normal. Tattoo removal creams. Although more expensive than TCA, they offer a gentler alternative, with no discomfort, peeling or scabbing. Depending on which brand you choose, they come as a kit containing either two or three different creams. Applied daily, they gradually fade the tattoo by breaking up the ink, which is then absorbed harmlessly into the body. How long it takes the tattoo to fade away will depend on the color and the depth of the ink. Lighter colors will tend to fade away quicker than darker colors.



By: James Randall

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Tattoo removal patients in Fort Worth, Texas have an exciting new option when looking to safely and effectively remove an unwanted tattoo. Until the last few years, removing a tattoo involved costly surgery that would leave unattractive scarring and in many case be only a last-ditch effort. Thankfully, major advances in laser tattoo removal offer residents of Fort Worth a great option when they desire to remove a tattoo safely, fully, and without breaking the bank. This article provides an overview of what laser tattoo removal is and provides some suggestions on how residents of Fort Worth should pick a tattoo removal clinic.

Laser tattoo removal is a cosmetic medical procedure that uses a highly-specialized medical laser to break up the ink in an unwanted tattoo which allows the body to flush the ink away during a series of treatments. The most advanced tattoo removal lasers are Q-switched Nd:YAG dual wavelength lasers that are able to remove both dark colored tattoos (black, brown, blue, purple) and light colored tattoos (red, orange, yellow, dark green).

The extremely fast pulse from the laser breaks up the ink so quickly that surrounding tissue is not damaged by the laser. The major side effects that most experience are redness and swelling for several days after the procedure as the body heals the area and begins to flush away the ink that has been broken down. With colored tattoos and some darker colors, the skin may blister for a few days after the procedure. Again, this is part of the normal healing process and the skin heals beautifully in the first and second week after each treatment.

Tattoo removal patients will normally schedule visits 4 weeks apart – almost every tattoo takes multiple sessions to break down all the way. Older tattoos are easier to remove because the body and exposure to sun has weakened the pigment in the tattoo and makes it easier for laser to remove. Also, tattoos that are already faded or that have shading are much easier to remove, although new, dark tattoos can certainly be removed as well.

When a resident of Fort Worth is looking to find a tattoo removal clinic, they would do well to look for a medical facility that specializes in the procedure. Clinics that only do tattoo removal will have the experience, equipment, and training to provide the best possible treatment. Also, the clinic should offer a free consultation so that patients are able to ask questions about the procedure and get an estimate of what each session will cost.



By: Ryan Lambert

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Tattoo Removal in Houston has become a medical treatment that many people are discussing. It involves several cutting-edge topics – America’s new obsession with tattooing, advances in medical technology, and aesthetic treatments to improve the look and function of the skin. Many Houston patients are curious how long it will take them to remove a tattoo. They may have a wedding coming up and they need to remove the name of an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend before they walk down the aisle with Mr. Right. They might think about summer coming up and they want to walk down the beach without having to think about their faded rose tattoo they got years ago.

Houston tattoo removal clinics have a lot of experience answering questions like this from patients. When receiving phone calls from new patients in Houston, they’ve developed a set of questions to help them learn more. Normally, the physician or nurse practitioner performing the treatment will ask patients a few questions to understand some important details about the tattoo to be removed.

The first question is the age of the tattoo – older tattoos are much more quickly removed that new tattoos. This is because the ink has faded from exposure to the sun and as the body has attempted to break down the ink (it thinks it is a foreign substance to destroy). The second questions will be about the color of the ink. Removing a black tattoo is much easier than removing a light green or blue-green tattoo. Red tattoos tend to be more quickly removed that orange tattoos. This is primarily because the wavelengths of light that are used to break up the ink in a tattoo focus in on certain colors better than others. The third question relates to the density of ink in a tattoo. Removing a tattoo that is filled with shading will be easier than removing a tattoo that is filled in completely with think, rich ink. A tattoo that has already faded somewhat has less ink density than a tattoo that is very much intact.

The number of actual treatments that will be required varies according to these factors, but also with the skill of the physician or nurse practitioner performing the laser tattoo removal. The more time the provider takes going over the tattoo, the better the result will be and the fewer treatments will be needed. When looking in Houston for a tattoo removal clinic, it is important to look for a trained medical professional who can discuss the procedure in depth and is willing to show their credentials. Be wary of medi-spas that offer dozens of procedures – they won’t have the experience with tattoo removal to be experts with their equipment and it will likely take many more treatments than necessary to fade a tattoo completely.



By: Ryan Lambert

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UV Tattoo Ink
Many people ask whether UV reactive tattoo ink is safe for use in tattooing. Or they ask if it is FDA approved. Some tattoo artists think that black light tattoo ink is not legal in some states or countries because it may lack an FDA approval.

The truth is NO TATTOO INK HAS AN FDA APPROVAL FOR USE ON HUMANS. There are some misleading claims about tattoo inks being FDA approved, in fact, even some UV reactive tattoo inks claim to be ‘the first FDA approved ink’ – when in fact it sometimes refers to their manufacturing methods, not the ink itself. Or, it really means ‘approved for use on wildlife, livestock and fish’ for tracking migratory patterns of various species of animal.

Does FDA approve equal ‘legal to use’?
So knowing that NO tattoo inks are FDA approved (in fact, on some tattoo ink bottles they even specify ‘not intended for use in tattooing. User assumes all risk’) we need to ask ‘is it legal’? Yes, it’s legal. Otherwise you simply wouldn’t see tattoo shops all over the place – the ink would be contraband and confiscated pretty quickly. UV inks are not FDA approved, just like regular tattoo ink. That does not make it illegal. It just means “if something goes wrong with your intended usage of the product, don’t come running to us…we didn’t approve of it…”

How do I determine if the ink is safe?
The important thing is to use your head when deciding on a tattoo. The inks most likely will NEVER be approved for tattooing. Think about it – what government body would approve of any foreign substance being willfully left behind in skin by people that are not in the medical profession? Who is going to spend the $money$ to perform rigorous testing on each ink pigment (color) to ensure that a black light tattoo ink or regular tattoo ink poses no risk? So ask your tattoo artist what brand (or brands) of tattoo inks they use. What colors and brands would they use on your tattoo (because sometimes an artist uses yellow from one company, and red from another…). Then start doing your own research – are people discussing the brand in forums on the internet about how a particular color reacted negatively in their skin? If so, it’s best to avoid that color (not necessarily the whole product line). Even better, call a company that sells tattoo supplies and ask them about the inks they sell – they’d usually be your most informed opinion.

Sometimes a brand of ink will have trouble with a color, which is why a shop might choose to avoid it – but that doesn’t mean YOUR shop has made that decision. Your artist might simply say “ah, that’s not really a problem” – but how do YOU feel about it? Was it an isolated incident you read about or does there seem to be a trend with that brand or color? In the end, it’s YOUR decision, not your artist’s.



By: Dave Meikle

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