Pico vs Nanosecond Laser for Tattoo Removal

Full Transcript

This machine is for sale on Amazon right now. The title says it's a picosecond laser. Now let's look at the specs. The pulse duration is 10 nanoseconds. 10 nanoseconds is 10,000 picoseconds. By its own numbers, it's a nanosecond laser. Picosecond, nanosecond, Q-switched, these words get mixed up all the time. I'm going to tell you what they really mean and what you're really getting when you get a cheap laser off the internet. My name is Billy DeCola and I'm the owner of Studio Kiku, where we remove tattoos and permanent makeup with laser.

What does Q-switched actually mean? A lot of people think Q-switched means an older type of laser. It's not a type of laser at all. It's actually how it fires. Think of it like a dam. A crystal inside the laser fills up with energy and a switch holds it back like a gate. When the gate opens, all the energy comes out at once in one big, very short pulse. That is Q-switching. It was shown to work in the early 1960's and lasers are currently being built with the same exact technology.

What's the difference between a picosecond laser and a nanosecond laser? It's how long the pulse lasts. A nanosecond is one billionth of a second and a picosecond is one trillionth of a second. In one nanosecond, light travels about 30 centimeters. In one picosecond, it travels about a third of a millimeter. A thousand picoseconds make up one nanosecond. So you'd think a picosecond laser's pulse is a thousand times shorter than a nanosecond laser's, but it's not. Professional picosecond lasers fire anywhere between 250 to 900 picoseconds. Most nanosecond tattoo lasers fire anywhere between five and 20 nanoseconds. That makes a picosecond pulse anywhere between six and 80 times shorter than a nanosecond laser, not a thousand times.

So the question is, can a picosecond laser be Q-switched? And the answer is yes. The first picosecond laser came out in 2012 and it was advertised by the manufacturer as a Q-switched Alexandrite laser. Other manufacturers described their picosecond lasers as Q-switched also. So a Q-switched laser isn't necessarily old and it isn't necessarily a nanosecond laser. Pico versus Q-switched is the wrong comparison. The real comparison is picosecond versus nanosecond lasers. We're talking about the pulse duration here, not how it's fired.

Why shorter pulses matter? Tattoo pigment sits inside your skin in tiny clumps or clusters of pigment particles. Each particle is about 100 times thinner than one strand of hair. A nanosecond pulse works mainly by heating the pigment particle. A picosecond pulse is so short that pressure builds up inside the pigment faster than it can escape and the ink cracks apart. So in theory, you get smaller pieces of ink with less heat spreading into your skin.

So the question is, is a picosecond laser better than a nanosecond laser? Where the studies agree is pain. In one trial, people rated the pain from picosecond about four out of 10 and from nanosecond about an eight. Removal is a different story. Some studies found picosecond clears the pigment better and others found no real difference. Where picosecond does definitely have the advantage is with colors like blues and greens and yellows. One more thing worth mentioning is a picosecond laser allows us to work a little bit more aggressively on darker skin tones because it delivers less heat and less heat is less trauma to the skin. If you want to know what your tattoo would take to remove, then send a photo at studiokiku.com/faded and we'll give you some honest feedback.

Can a picosecond laser take your tattoo off in one or two sessions? Usually not. It really depends on how deep and how saturated the tattoos are. Once in a while, we do have success removing tattoos in one or two sessions, but that's very rare. On average, a deep, dark, saturated tattoo takes anywhere between nine to 12 sessions to completely remove and those sessions are spaced out a minimum of two months apart.

Can one laser remove multiple colors? Well, yes it can, but it often requires multiple hand pieces for that specific laser. For example, the PicoWay has three different wavelengths and it uses two different hand pieces. So we have one hand piece that can remove the blacks and darker colors and if we switch the configuration on the machine, then it can go to the 532 and it can remove the sunset colors like reds, orange, yellow, those types of things. And then we have another hand piece, which is the 730 and that can remove the blues and greens and purples. White and any color that has white mix in it cannot be removed.

What are you really getting with a tattoo removal laser off of Amazon? On Amazon, tattoo removal lasers cost anywhere between $500 and $2,500. Online, there are even handheld tattoo removal pens that cost around $100. Several of them say picosecond in the title, but then list their specs as 8 or 10 nanoseconds. And none of those are FDA or Health Canada approved. Nobody independent has done any test to see exactly what these machines are putting out.

So what's the difference between a cheap pico laser and a professional one? A professional picosecond laser can cost anywhere up to $250,000 to $300,000. Its maker files its pulse, its energy, and the spot size with the FDA. And if it's sold legally in North America, then it has a license you can look up. The cheap ones we looked at, they don't show any of that. And it's not about where it's made. A lot of the lasers are made in China and they do hold FDA and Health Canada approved seals. What matters is whether it's licensed and whether it's serviced and calibrated.

Okay, let's talk about some questions that you can ask your service provider before you get your laser tattoo removal session. Of course, you can ask them if it's a picosecond or a nanosecond laser. The next thing you want to ask is what wavelength will they use for the colors that you're targeting? Of course, you want to know who's firing the laser and if they're trained and experienced removing the type of tattoo that you have. The laser is only part of it. The same laser can get very different results depending on who's using it.

Thanks again for tuning in to the Faded Podcast and we'll see you again next time.