Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say new technology to remove tattoos is available. In the past, doctors used dermabrasion or surgery to remove unwanted tattoos. These techniques left ugly scars in the place of tattoos. Doctors now use lasers to remove or fade tattoos. The laser delivers high energy to the pigment in the tattoo, exploding the pigment particles to microscopic fragments the body can clear out.
New lasers can remove or fade most tattoos, but some tattoos are more difficult than others.
Tattoos with red or yellow ink are particularly difficult to remove. Some tattoos can't be completely removed, but most will fade significantly with treatment. The laser treatment is usually done without anesthesia and causes no more pain than getting the tattoo in the first place. It takes four to eight treatments to completely remove a tattoo, depending on the kind and color of ink used, the size of the tattoo and whether it was applied by a professional or an amateur. The new removal techniques may be an improvement, but they still aren't a quick, easy or inexpensive fix.