Clinical Research on Laser-Assisted Tattoo Removal

Late fall and winter are great times to have a tattoo removed, as a New York Times article points out.
Why? Because the laser treatments used to remove tattoos are most effective on un-tanned skin.
“The danger is that your natural sun pigment—melanin—absorbs the laser light, and you end up with scabbing and crusting, then a temporary [...]

A case study review, published in Dermatology, reports on 12 patients who came to the authors’ outpatient clinic with severe side effects after undergoing laser tattoo removal procedures performed elsewhere. All the patients had hypo- or hyper-pigmentations and scarring at the treatment site. Three had received their treatments from beauticians, the rest from physicians (dermatologists [...]

A new study by Mass General researchers Drs. Rox Anderson, Avram and Izikson have shown two patients who’ve had an immunologic reaction following laser tattoo removal. There have been reports of patients who are undergoing an allergic reaction to a tattoo ink who, upon receiving laser tattoo removal, have gone into full body anaphylactic shock. [...]

A new study published by leading dermatologist Dr. Edward Ross at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego looked at the absorption spectra of various tattoo inks and found some interesting results.
How tattoo inks absorb various laser light is an important question as it may determine the success of the removal of a tattoo. Here [...]

The researchers enrolled thirty adult patients undergoing laser tattoo removal. Each patient received both an S-Caine Peel and placebo simultaneously for sixty minutes. The primary efficacy parameter used in the study was a 100 mm visual analog scale (VAS) for patient self-assessment. In addition, secondary efficacy assessments were utilized including both the investigator’s and an [...]

Leading researchers published a study in the Dermatologic Surgery Journal which evaluated the efficacy of S-Caine peels for the induction of local anesthesia for laser-assisted tattoo removal. The study, headed up by researchers at the University of Louisville Department of Dermatology, involved multiple centers and was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
A study by researchers at [...]

Welcome fellow dermatologists and laser surgeons. Laser tattoo removal is an exciting field of study with new devices and products entering the market on a regular basis. We hope that this blog will create a place to synthesize the data we are familiar with, and comment on it. As new developments are made, we will [...]