Show Notes
Billy breaks down why some black and grey tattoos fade cleanly while others refuse to budge, and it comes down to how the grey was made. He explains the difference between a wash, which is black diluted with water, and an opaque grey, which is black mixed with white. Because white pigment does not absorb laser energy, opaque greys can oxidize and turn darker instead of clearing, so Billy shares his honest advice on when a tattoo simply should not be lasered.
Topics Covered
Why black is the easiest colour to remove
Black absorbs all wavelengths rather than reflecting them, which lets the pigment shatter under the 1064 wavelength. This is why straightforward black work tends to respond well to laser tattoo removal.
What a wash actually is
A wash is black pigment diluted with water, either mixed by the tattooer or bought pre-bottled in light to dark strengths. This diluted grey is very easy to remove, often in one or two sessions with a gentle pass.
The problem with opaque grey
Opaque grey is created by mixing black with white, and white pigment does not absorb any laser energy. When you try to remove it, the surrounding black lifts but the opaque grey stays put or gets darker.
How pigment oxidizes and turns darker
Turning up the laser on a white-containing pigment can cause it to oxidize, so it frosts and looks reactive but ends up darker. Once that happens, no number of passes or setting changes will clear it.
Why Billy is honest about saline as an option
Billy has tried saline removal on these difficult cases and has yet to see results where the skin is undamaged and the pigment is truly gone. He invites anyone with better outcomes to share them.
When not to laser a tattoo at all
If a tattoo contains white, whether an opaque grey, baby blue, light pink, or lavender, Billy recommends leaving it alone to avoid wasted money and disappointment. He would rather tell a client upfront that removal is not realistic.
Full Transcript
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 going to 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 Dola. 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 1064 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 gray 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 going to 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 got to 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. 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 going to 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 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 going to 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 going to 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 want to be a bummer. I just want to 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 going to 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 going to be disappointed and you're going to 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 want to 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 1,000 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.