17th CONGRESS OF THE SPANISH SOCIETY OF MEDICAL-SURGICAL LASER

“Tattoos. Science or patience”.

Speaker: Dr Paloma Cornejo Navarro. Head of the IML Dermatology Unit.
(Summary)

More and more patients are seeking consultation for tattoo or micropigmentation removal. Changing trends and examinations to certain public service positions are the basic reasons for this type of consultation.

Tattoo removal is not a simple procedure.

The compositions are often unknown due to the secrecy shown by a number of centres. The products that are permitted in Spain, according to the tattoo artists, apparently do not render good results and are not used. There are many brands that are later mixed together and the patient never knows the final composition, making the task of removal difficult.

Laser is the only specific system for the removal of tattoos. It causes bursting of the ink particle (photo acoustic effect) through high power triggering in a very short time span (nanoseconds).

Several factors should be kept in mind when removing tattoos. At Instituto Medico Laser we have carried out a retrospective study that encompasses tattoos started and treated from January 2007 to date.