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The development of lasers has allowed practitioners to remove the varying different types and colours of tattoo pigments with increasing safely and effectiveness.
Lower cost equipment has encouraged more practitioners into this market, making the treatment widely available.
This trend is likely to continue as more clinics adopt their use. More young people are currently getting tattoos than ever before and may ultimately regret that decision 10, 20 or 30 years down the line. Research suggests that 70% of people with tattoos eventually regret having had it done.
Although current results can be very good, they vary both with the skill of the operator and type of machine used.
There are still some problems and tattoos which have been treated - even using the most up-to-date technology may often not disappear completely, especially for some colours, although they are usually much less obvious than before treatment and many people are satisfied with this result.
Because of the variety of different types of tattoos (e.g. amateur, professional, semi-permanent micropigmentation etc.) that can be treated with these machines, we cannot stress strongly enough how important it is to find a practitioner experienced in treating a wide range of tattoos. As some of these systems are available in cosmetic clinics and specialist laser clinics - you must do your homework to make sure that they have the right equipment and training to treat you safely and effectively.
It is important to check the type of laser that a clinic is using for tattoo removal, as these should always be Q-Switched, with the commonest being Q-Switched Ruby and Q-Switched Nd:YAG lasers. Be very wary of any clinic offering laser tattoo removal using an Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) machine.