Natasha Irwin, a lawyer, wanted to get rid of her tattoo – a butterfly on her lower back. Though, getting a tattoo seemed like a good idea four years ago, Natasha now regrets the day she chose to have a tattoo permanently inked into her skin. With the laser tattoo removal treatment, it is now possible to erase or diminish tattoos in even the most delicate areas.

The laser tattoo removal treatment is carried out with the help of a laser. The laser beam pulses break up the colors in the skin, your body attacks the colors and the dye fades in a way similar to white blood cells attacking an illness.

Lasers use an intense beam of light that can be operated as a steady light or pulse to attack ink without hurting skin cells. Different modes are set to break up different colors.

The side-effects of this laser treatment include redness, irritation, light scabbing, swelling, loss of sensation and very light bleeding. Skin discoloration can occur, especially when an older or unapproved laser is used. The good part about laser tattoo removal treatment is that there is virtually no downtime after treatments, so they can be scheduled during the busiest of schedules.

The laser treatment claims to remove tattoos from any place on the body. Even permanent cosmetics, which are essentially tattoos on the face, often along the lash or brow lines, can be removed with lasers.

When you are looking for a tattoo removal treatment, it is advisable to avoid micro laser peels, which is approved for skin resurfacing but not approved by the FDA for tattoo removal. Make sure the laser your doctor uses has multiple modalities. A quality laser will have different modes for removing different colors – A Q-switched laser provides different pulses to remove warm dyes, cool dyes or black and gray dyes.

It is important to note that the laser tattoo removal treatment takes months. Typically, a client can expect anywhere from five to 15 sessions to remove the tattoo completely Sessions are usually spaced several weeks apart, so a complete tattoo removal could easily take more than a year. Laser tattoo removal treatments can range from $150 to $600 per session.