[00:00:00] Even though it’s marketed as this laser can remove all pigment types on all skin tones, I will tell you that’s not true. Anybody on the Fitzpatrick Scale for and up is gonna have a very, very hard time removing red pigment. Back in the day, red tattoo pigments contained mercury sulfide. And this mercury sulfide would cause allergies and not only aesthetic issues like pigment oxidizing and turning dark, but you can also run into some medical issues too.

[00:00:33] If you have an allergic reaction, you could die from that. So what kind of tattoos are we talking about here? Welcome to the Faded podcast. In this episode, I’m gonna discuss tattoos that cannot, and tattoos that should not be removed with the laser. And a lot of these laser manufacturers advertise that all tattoos can be removed on all skin tones, and that is just not the case.

[00:01:03] And some of these situations. When you start removing tattoos that should not be removed with the laser, you run into some serious issues and not only aesthetic issues like pigment oxidizing and turning dark, but you can also run into some medical issues too. So stick around. I’m gonna go over the top four or maybe five tattoos that should not.

[00:01:28] Be lasered. My name’s Billy De. I’m the owner of Studio Kiku, one of the world’s most trusted and well-known laser tattoo removal studios in the world. We have clients coming in every day with tattoos that they wanna remove, and unfortunately, sometimes we have to break the news to the client that the tattoo that they’re looking to get lasered off might not be.

[00:01:50] A candidate for safe and effective laser tattoo removal. And what do I mean by that exactly? Well, let me explain it to you. Some tattoos contain pigments that are not possible to remove. The number one pigment that we see that’s just not possible at all to remove is white. Now, you rarely see a tattoo that has a.

[00:02:12] All white throughout, but you will see tattoos that have a ton of white packed in there, whether it’s white by itself or if it’s pigment that contains white, like a baby blue or a pink, or sometimes we see grays that are opaque grays. Now, what’s the difference between a gray that can be removed? A gray that cannot be removed.

[00:02:37] Some grays are made with a wash, and when we say wash in the tattoo world, what we mean by that is black mixed with water. So you’re actually just diluting the black and you’re creating a gray with just black and water, and then you run into other grays that are created by mixing black. And white pigment, [00:03:00] and that’s an opaque gray.

[00:03:02] If you run into pigment, that’s an opaque gray, you’re not gonna be able to remove it completely. You may be able to get some of that dark pigment out, but what’s gonna end up happening is once you start getting rid of most of the black, and you have that white that’s being left behind and you try to laser that weight, it’s just gonna oxidize.

[00:03:22] And turn dark, and it’s almost gonna turn into the same gray that you had when you came in. Most likely. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. It’s very important for your tattoo laser technician to be able to identify if the tattoo is a wash or if it’s an opaque gray, and if the laser tech can’t figure that out, well.

[00:03:46] Maybe they shouldn’t be lasering tattoos at all. That’s a very, very important thing to be able to identify if you’re a laser technician. So there, there we have like a gray, that’s an opaque gray. But then if you look at some other colors like blues, pinks, magenta’s, even greens, like you’ll see opaque uh, mixtures where you know you’re mixing the pigment with.

[00:04:10] White in order to lighten it up. And if that’s the case, you’re gonna have a very hard time, if not impossible, to remove the pigment completely. I’ve seen some tattoos being lasered off that, you know, it may have started out as a pink, uh, some cherry blossoms. I’ve seen cherry blossoms a million times, oxidize and go from a nice pink color and they end up turning gray and it’s not even.

[00:04:40] It’s not even, it’s just like a muddy looking gray, and once it turns that color, it’s very difficult, if not impossible to remove. So it’s important for a laser technician to be able to identify if there’s white in the pigment and if there is, it’s not a good idea to laser it off. And if you’re not sure.

[00:05:02] Then it’s always a great idea to do a little test spot. Why not just try a little spot, figure out how the pigment’s gonna react. You can wait a little bit, come back in, and then you can laser the whole thing off if you get a good reaction. If you don’t get a good reaction, then don’t try to laser it off.

[00:05:20] It’s just not gonna work. Number one on the list is white pigment. If you see white in your tattoo, whether it’s straight, white, or if it’s an opaque gray, or any other opaque color, that’s a pigment mixed with white, then I definitely recommend at least trying a test spot first to see if it’s gonna react properly.

[00:05:42] If it doesn’t, do not remove that tattoo with a laser because you’re gonna end up walking outta the laser shop with a worse looking tattoo than you did when you first came in. Trust me when I tell you that another tattoo that should not or cannot be removed with a laser is red pigment. On darker skin tones.

[00:06:03] And when I say darker skin tones, I’m talking about Fitzpatrick four and up. So 4, 5, 6. And if you’re not familiar with the Fitzpatrick Scale, then go to our website and check it out. We have some resources there where you can figure out what’s going on with the Fitzpatrick Scale and you can kind of learn where you fall into it.

[00:06:23] Anybody on the Fitzpatrick scale for and Up is gonna have a very, very hard time removing red pigment. Now it can be done if you use a very, very light setting and if you’re patient, but it’s always important to do a test spot to figure out how your skin is gonna react and also how the pigment is gonna react.

[00:06:44] But more importantly, Fitzpatrick scales four, five, and six. If you’re trying to remove red pigment, you are prone to hyperpigmentation most likely. And if that’s the case, then the 5 32 wavelength that’s used to target red pigment will also target the melanin in your skin. So if that’s the case, then be very careful.

[00:07:08] You don’t want to go into a laser tattoo removal studio trying to remove red if you’re. Aware of how your skin is gonna react. So it’s always important to do a test spot. Number three on the list of tattoos that cannot or should not be removed with the laser are hybrid pigments. And when I say hybrid pigments, I kind of touched on this in the first one with white, but.

[00:07:32] It’s also not only white, it could be other colors too. So yellows mixed with certain colors. Um, pink mixed with certain colors. When you get like a, a conglomeration or a mixture of colors. Um, creating like some hybrid color, it’s very difficult to find the proper wavelength to target these tattoos, and we often have a difficult time removing them.

[00:07:57] So what kind of tattoos are we talking about here? I’m gonna show you a couple photos of tattoos that I think would be impossible to remove with a laser, just because the pigments are not straight colors, it’s gonna confuse the laser and also confuse the technician who’s trying to target these pigments, because sometimes you just can’t.

[00:08:19] Put a wavelength on type of pigment that you’re looking at. So if you see a color that’s kind of brownish green, like what wavelength are you gonna use for that? There is not a wavelength for every single color. So some of these hybrid colors, mixtures of pigment, people that make their own concoction, sometimes these pigments are difficult, if not.

[00:08:42] Impossible to remove. So before you jump into a big, long laser tattoo removal process, it would be very important to assess the tattoo to make sure that the colors that you have in your skin are able to be targeted by the wavelengths that your laser studio that you’re going to has. And not everybody has the same wavelengths.

[00:09:05] Here at Studio Kiku, we have the 10 64 wavelength, which targets dark pigments, blacks, and anything that has black in it. We have the seven 30 and the 7 85, which targets greens and blues, and we have the 5 32, which targets all the sunset colors like reds, oranges, yellows, um, sometimes even the 5 32 is not able to get out the yellow.

[00:09:30] So just beware that even though it’s marketed as this laser can remove all pigment types on all skin tones, I will tell you that’s not true. So it’s always, always important to have a consultation with your laser technician to make sure that they’re able to remove the pigment that you have in your skin.

[00:09:51] So another tattoo that should not be lasered off is a tattoo that has a ton of red in it. And you might think, well, I thought you said that you have a wavelength that targets red. That is true. We do have a wavelength that targets the red, but you should definitely know that a lot of people are allergic to red pigment.

[00:10:15] Back in the day, red tattoo pigments contained mercury sulfide and this mercury sulfide would cause allergies. I have a story, this is kind of a crazy story, but my buddy and I, we were in Japan and we were getting tattooed over there and um, he’s a good friend of mine. He’s actually a tattooer, I’m not gonna say his name ’cause I didn’t ask if I could share this story, but he got tattooed a little tattoo on his ankle.

[00:10:41] It was a tiny one. And, uh, red tattoo pigment was used. And you know, a month later, I think he messaged me or called me up and he’s like. Hey man, this tattoo is just not healing. It’s not healing, and I don’t know if it’s infected or what’s going on. Two months later, same thing. The tattoo is just like bubbling up and it just would not, it would not heal.

[00:11:06] And he was having an allergic reaction to the red. And basically what was happening was his body was just trying to. Get rid of that pigment, and he was pushing it out. It was like bubbling and it was pretty gnarly looking. He ended up having to get it surgically removed, and luckily it was just a tiny little tattoo on his ankle, so it wasn’t anything crazy but.

[00:11:29] The red pigment caused him to have an allergic reaction that his body could not handle, and it didn’t. It didn’t get better over time because the pigment particles were lodged in his skin and his body was doing everything it could to get rid of that pigment, but it couldn’t resolve itself. So he ended up having to get it surgically removed and everything was fine afterwards.

[00:11:52] But that red pigment. Did not sit well with his body. And it probably contained one of those older ingredients like the Mercury sulfide or even the Cine bar. Nowadays they make pigment with different ingredients that, um, are synthetic or organic. So it may not cause an allergic reaction as much, but you just don’t know.

[00:12:15] So if you have a tattoo, like a big, huge hania mask on your back and you’re like, I wanna get rid of this thing and there’s a bunch of red in it, I would say you’d be better off not trying to laser that off because your body, even if you didn’t have a, a crazy allergic reaction when you got the tattoo, once you break that pigment up.

[00:12:37] And it’s tiny. It turns into tiny particles and your body’s absorbing it, and it’s running through your lymph and it’s lodging in your lymph nodes and everything. If you have an allergic reaction, you could die from that, like you can actually die from that. So it’s very important to. You know, if you do decide to remove red from your body, that you at least do some test spots to see how you’re gonna react to it.

[00:13:02] But I would highly recommend if you have a tattoo with a ton of red, like super saturated red, just leave it alone. Don’t try to remove a big red tattoo because you could pay the price for that. Those are some types of tattoos that I would recommend not lasering off. We have tattoos that contain a lot of white.

[00:13:25] We have people with dark skin that have red tattoo pigment in their skin. That’s a no-no. Uh, we have hybrid colors. Colors that may contain white or other ingredients that will just completely confuse the laser. And number four, we have ultra red saturated tattoos. Lots of red could cause some medical issues.

[00:13:48] Those are some tattoos that I would recommend not. Removing with the laser. Now if you do decide you want to get removal and you’re questioning whether or not your tattoo falls into any of those categories, I would recommend consulting with your laser technician and find out if they are familiar with these types of issues.

[00:14:09] And if they are, then get their opinion and listen to your laser tech and if you decide to remove one of these tattoos that you have been warned about. Then well, you may run into some issues. Thanks for tuning in to The Faded podcast. We’ll see you again next time.