We have been using tattoo removal lasers since 1993 and in fact, still operate our original Ruby laser, which is a 'Rolls-Royce' among lasers, providing a higher specification after 18 years of life than the vast majority of Ruby lasers available new today.

Where tattoo lasers have developed is in invisible, infra-red wavelengths and we are now looking to upgrade our existing Nd:YAG laser to a higher specification system that instead of delivering 2 infra-red 'colours' of light, delivers 3.

For those with a technical bent, there is an explanation below but in brief... we need different 'colours' of light to effectively target the entire range of tattoo pigment colours - the more colours we have the more pigments we can treat.

Also, the new laser delivers its energy more gently than our existing lasers so that, although it still 'cracks' tattoo pigment very effectively, it is less damaging to natural skin colour and hurts less!

We will be trialling the system over the following months and will let you know how we get on.

Tattoo lasers and coloured light

Black tattoos are very easy to treat - black ink absorbs all colours of light but coloured tattoos are more difficult as pigments reflect their own colour, so a red tattoo will not respond to red light and a green tattoo will not respond to green light.

we use a red light (694nm) from the Ruby laser to target green pigments and a green light (532nm) to target reds; we also have an invisible, infra-red light at 1064nm which has the useful property of being less damaging to natural skin colour than the other colours and so is useful for darker and freckled skin-types.

The new system that we are trialling delivers a fourth 'colour' of light, being a deep, border-line visible red light (755nm) that will penetrate skin better than 694nm.

The new laser also delivers its energy in a longer pulse than is traditional for tattoo removal (at 100 nanoseconds rather than 10). The difference is that this longer pulse, while still being short enough to shatter the tattoo pigment, is long enough to spare epidermal melalin and is therefore less damaging to natural skin pigment; it also has a useful side effect in being less painful!

You should be aware that these new lasers represent significant investments with the Trivantage costing £60,000, so this is not a $1000 laser from China but a high-end piece of equipment representing our commitment to the very best technology that is available.