FADED Podcast

Billy DeCola

00:00

Black and gray tattoos. Most people think it’s the easiest to remove, and in some cases it is, but there are cases where that gray just won’t come out. Stick around. I’m gonna explain the difference between some black and grays that are easy to remove and others that can’t be removed at all. Welcome to the Faded podcast.

My name’s Billy. I’m the owner of Studio Kiku, one of the world’s most trusted and well-known laser tattoo removal studios in the world. Most people know that black is the easiest color to remove, and the reason why it’s so easy to remove is because it does not reflect laser. What it does is it absorbs all of the energy.

Now, other colors. Like blues and reds and yellows, they have a tendency of reflecting certain wavelengths, which doesn’t allow them to absorb the energy, and therefore the pigment will not shatter. But black is the easiest color to remove because it absorbs all of the wavelengths. We use the 10 64 wavelength to target black pigment.

And normally if it’s just black pigment, the pigment shatters with no problem whatsoever. Sometimes those black and gray tattoos will fade with no problem whatsoever, and in other cases, that gray will just not break down. What’s the reason why some gray will break down and others will not? Well, let me explain the tattooing process to you, and that’ll help you better understand why the pigment’s not breaking down.

In order to make gray, you have to mix black with something. Sometimes tattooers use black and they dilute it with water in order to create the grade they’re going for. Normally what we’ll do is we’ll take drops of black and we’ll put water in the cap with it. Mix it up, and there you go. You have what we call in tattooing a wash.

A wash is simply black, diluted down, and you can create your own wash based on how light or how dark you want it. The more drops of black in the ink cap, the darker it’s gonna be. It’s pretty simple. Every tattooer has their own formula that they use if they’re a black and gray tattooer and they’re using wash nowadays.

However, you can buy the bottled wash already. So you can buy a black, you can buy a medium. You can buy a light, you can buy an ultra light. Some people call it feather light, like everybody has their own name, but it’s all the same thing. When we’re talking about wash, it’s black. Mixed with water, which dilutes it.

There are other things in the bottle too. There could be some alcohol, there could be witch hazel, there could be glycerin. Um, those are all just components of pigment, but the main thing that’s diluting the pigment is water. Now that’s a wash. That type of pigment is very, very easy to remove. It comes right out.

All you gotta do is pass over it. We don’t even have to go strong. We just use a nice large spot size, which goes nice and deep, and we hit it nice and gently and it comes right out. Sometimes wash comes out in a single session, maybe two. It’s the darker, more saturated pigment, like the black lines or the heavy black shading that takes a little bit longer to remove.

Yeah, but when we’re talking about other types of grays, like an opaque gray, that is when we run into some big issues. Because in order to make an opaque gray, what you have to do is mix black and you don’t dilute it with water. You add white to it. So now you’re mixing black and white, which creates an opaque gray.

And when a tattoo comes in and we look at it. Sometimes it’s difficult for us to determine what type of gray was used. Was it wash? Was it an opaque gray that contains white? Sometimes we don’t know. Now what is the problem with the opaque gray? Now, if you go back to some of my other episodes about pigment and what pigments reflect laser and what absorb it, you will know that black absorbs everything and the opposite of black is white and that absorbs nothing.

No laser can break down white pigment. So if we have black pigment mixed with white pigment to create a gray. And you try to laser that you’re gonna run into difficulty. I’ve done that on myself. I did a little tattoo on my leg back in the day and I forgot that I mixed a little white in there. And when I got down to the very end and I thought, wow, this tattoo is almost gone.

And I tried to turn the laser up a little bit more to get rid of that very last little bit of pigment in there. What ended up happening was. It oxidized, so it turned darker. And no matter how many times you hit that pigment, after it oxidizes, it’s not gonna come out. It’s just going to stay the same or maybe get darker.

And I’ve seen several cases where people had black and gray tattoos that they wanted to remove. And we got to the point where that gray looked very, very light, but it was still kind of really reacting to the laser. And what ends up happening is the white will just, it frosts and it looks like something’s really happening, but nothing happens.

The only thing that happens is that gray ends up turning a little bit darker. And there’s really no way to get that pigment out unless you try saline removal. And I’ve done saline removal on several cases like this, and I’m gonna be honest with you, it’s not the best solution. Now there are lots of people out there who claim that saline is awesome, and I’d love to see your results if you have experienced.

Results with saline removal that have been spectacular, please share them with me. I have yet to see great results with saline, where the skin is not damaged, where the pigment faded, and where the person had no trace of the tattoo. So what do we do in the case when we know that an opaque gray was used to tattoo?

The best bet in my opinion is to just avoid it altogether. If you have white in your tattoo, whether it’s an opaque gray or whether it’s a baby blue or a light pink or some type of lavender that has white in it, if you laser that pigment, what ends up happening is it goes from that color that it was to a gray, and if it’s an opaque gray, it may become darker.

All of the surrounding black will lift. But that opaque gray will not lift. So the best bet in that case is do not laser it. And I don’t wanna be a bummer. I just wanna let you know that some tattoos cannot be lasered off. And I’ll be the first to tell you if you come in the studio and you have a tattoo that’s black and gray, and I can tell that that’s opaque gray, I’m gonna tell you I don’t think it’s possible.

I, I don’t think you should do it. Now, if you decide you want to give it a go, that’s fine and dandy, but I will let you know and I’ll probably say I told you so because it’s not coming out. I don’t care how determined you are. I don’t care what you try to do, what settings we use, whatever. It ain’t coming out, so don’t try.

That is my loving advice to you, our potential client who’s coming in to get laser tattoo removal. So let’s just recap this. There are two kinds of grays out there. There’s one that’s a wash and it’s black mixed with water, and it’s diluted gray that is super easy to remove. No problem whatsoever. The issue is when we’re trying to remove a gray that is an opaque gray.

That means the gray was created by mixing black. And white. And if that’s the case, I do recommend not lasering that pigment whatsoever or else you’re just gonna be disappointed and you’re gonna waste a bunch of money if you’ve had a different experience. Other than what I just mentioned, please share it in the comments or send me an email.

Whatever you wanna do. I’d love to hear about it. I’m always down to learn. If there’s something to learn, I would love to learn it. We’re almost at a thousand subscribers, so please hit that subscribe button. Like and share and tell a friend if you would. If you do that, it’ll help this podcast grow and it’ll make me happy.

Thanks again for visiting the Faded podcast, and we’ll see you again next time.