Getting a permanent tattoo is an easy decision. But its a decision easy to regret. There could be a lot of reasons you need your tattoo removed. It could be to get the job you always wanted, or the memory of your ex-girlfriend is too painful for you. Maybe its a street gang related tattoo which you do not wish to associate with (good for you!) anymore. Or it could be a tattoo in a ideal or idol you no longer believe in, whatever your reason be, this article will guide you in the right direction to get that tattoo removed.
Laser treatment:
The most common method in todays time is to get laser treatment. Lasers work by targeting the ink in your skin with a pulse of highly concentrated light which then breaks down the ink in tiny particles and releases it into your skin. These are then taken care of by the immune system. However laser treatment doesn’t eliminate your tattoo in just one go. It takes about 8-12 treatments with a gap of 8 weeks between each treatment, to completely get rid of the tattoo. Factors such as age, skin color, location, amount of ink, quality of tattoo and age of tattoo play a big role in how long it takes to get rid of the tattoo. The problem is that the more the treatments you get the more you damage your skin too. This can lead to painful blisters and scabs and can eventually lead to scarring of your skin. There are also reported cases when laser treatment darkens the tattoo rather than remove it although such cases are very rare. This can also be easily verified by getting laser treatment on a small area of the tattoo and waiting to see the results. Laser treatment is quite expensive too and can cost anything between $250 – $1000 per session. A large tattoo could cost thousands of dollars to remove but the results still wouldn’t be guaranteed.
Intense Pulsed Light Therapy:
Intense Pulsed Light, or popularly IPL, is also used for tattoo removal. It is used instead of laser light and works pretty much in the same manner. A gel is typically applied to the area needing treatment and a wand is used to emit pulses of high intensity light onto the skin. This method is supposedly less painful and more effective than laser therapy and hence requires less treatment sessions. Of course this treatment method also costs a lot, clinics often charging as much as $10 per pulse. Since it can take a large amount of pulses to remove your tattoo this can add up to a heft sum of money.
Do-It-Yourself Cream Removals:
There are a few tattoo removal creams advertised online. These creams have received mixed responses. Results seem to vary from person to person. Some people claim the cream completely removed the tattoo while others have had just a slight fading of color while still others claim the cream did nothing at all. These creams do not come cheap either. A two month supply of such cream could cost about 150$ and it can take several months before it takes your tattoo off.
Other Medical Methods:
There are some more methods of removing a tattoo but they usually tend to be extremely painful and quite inefficient. Since the advent of laser removal treatment most of these methods have become obsolete. For example dermabrasion is a method in which the top layer of skin is actually “sanded” away through abrasive friction. Another method excision involves cutting away the tattooed skin and sewing it back together. These methods usually heavily damage the skin and even leave permanent scars. Hence these methods are used only when laser surgery is not an option. Another popular method is when a tattoo is covered over by another tattoo to hide the original one. This is particularly useful to people who just want to have a different tattoo rather than completely remove the existing one.
Related Tags: big tattoos removal, how to clean a permanent tatoo away, remove large tattoo
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