Patients - Tattoo Removal & You

Laser tattoo removal gives you a choice over how your skin looks. If your tattoos don’t fit your life anymore, Astanza lasers in the hands of a skilled practitioner can provide a solution.

No other tattoo removal lasers offer the same degree of effectiveness and safety. Our technology allows for the removal of virtually every color of tattoo ink with a minimum number of treatments. By removing the ink in your tattoo and minimizing the impact on your skin, Astanza lasers can eliminate your tattoo without interrupting your life.

Laser tattoo removal is a cosmetic laser procedure that works by shattering the ink in your tattoo into tiny fragments your body will flush away. Over a series of short procedures, a practitioner will direct highly-focused laser energy at your tattoo in pulses that last a fraction of a second. These pulses will be absorbed by the ink in your unwanted tattoo, causing it to break into tiny pieces. Your body’s immune system will then naturally remove these particles causing the tattoo to fade.

Specific lasers are used for laser tattoo removal. These lasers are different in important ways from lasers used for hair removal, vein removal, laser liposuction, or other aesthetic laser procedures. The practitioner that performs laser removal treatments on your tattoo should use a system that has the following characteristics:

Key Characteristics of Tattoo Removal Lasers

• Q-Switching: a sophisticated technique that allows the production of light pulses with extremely short duration allowing for high peak power. Short pulses in the nanosecond (billionth of a second) range allow tattoo removal lasers to shatter ink without scarring the skin.

• Wavelengths: the wavelength of light produced by the laser determines what color ink can be removed. For laser tattoo removal, the most effective wavelengths are 1064nm (black, brown, and purple tattoo ink), 532nm (red, orange, and yellow tattoo ink), and 694nm (green and blue tattoo ink). Other wavelengths exist and are used by some systems, but they generally are not produced in sufficient energy to effectively shatter ink.

• Energy/Fluence: in order to shatter tattoo ink, the pigment particles that make up a tattoo must be heated to a high temperature in a very short period of time. Astanza lasers are the most advanced tattoo removal lasers on the market and are designed and built to incorporate the TruePower necessary to remove your ink. Many tattoo removal lasers – especially small, old, or “table-top” units are not able to produce nearly enough energy to remove your tattoo. If you’ve been to many laser treatments and aren’t seeing results, the laser being used very likely doesn’t have enough energy (or possibly the right wavelength) for your tattoo. Suggest your practitioner consider an Astanza Duality or Trinity tattoo removal laser.

• Articulated Arm: Lasers powerful enough to remove tattoos will deliver laser energy through an articulated arm. This looks like a silvery metal tube that connects the laser to the hand piece the practitioner uses for your treatment. Articulated arms are the only effective way to deliver the power needed to remove a tattoo – fiber optics or cords with a “gun” or “bazooka” style hand piece won’t do the job.

• Safety Features: You’ll want to make sure you are wearing safety goggles during the laser tattoo removal treatment. These goggles will be orange for most tattoos and purple for the removal of blue and green tattoos. You can look at the goggles to see if wavelength of light used to treat your tattoo (1064nm, 532nm, 694nm) is listed on the goggles, normally in white lettering. Astanza lasers deliver these goggles to every practitioner upon purchase of our Duality or Trinity.