Show Notes
Tattoo removal is a process that requires the right preparation from the start. In this episode of The Faded Podcast, Billy DeCola reveals the five most common — and costly — mistakes people make before their first laser session.
Topics covered include:
- Choosing the wrong clinic
- Skipping aftercare
- Prioritizing low cost over quality results
- Not understanding the technology being used
- Failing to plan the full removal journey
Transcript Highlights
"Alright, so today I want to talk about something that honestly does not get talked about enough. Most people think that the hardest part of tattoo removal is the treatments themselves, but the biggest mistakes that people make is before the treatments even start..." — Billy DeCola (00:00)
_Note: Full transcript available on the source page; should be re-extracted in full for SEO completeness._
Full Transcript
In this episode of The Faded Podcast, our experts reveal the five most common — and costly — mistakes people make before their first laser session. From choosing the wrong clinic to skipping aftercare, learn what to avoid so you can achieve the best possible results with less time, money, and frustration. Knowledge is the first step to a successful removal journey. FULL TRANSCRIPT Billy DeCola 00:00 Alright, so today I want to talk about something that honestly does not get talked about enough. Most people think that the hardest part of tattoo removal is the treatments themselves, but the biggest mistakes that people make is before the treatments even start. And those mistakes end up costing people more time, more money, and in some cases. Worse results. So if you’re thinking about getting tattoo removal, this is one of the most important episodes that you can watch. Let’s set the stage quickly. Tattoo removal is a process. It’s not one session, it’s not two sessions. It’s a series of treatments where your body is doing most of the heavy lifting. The laser breaks down the pigment, but your immune system is what actually clears it. So everything we’re talking about today, these mistakes, they all compound over time. Mistake number one. Chasing the cheapest option. This is probably the most common one. I see people shop around and they’re just looking for the lowest price per session, and I get it on the surface. That makes sense. But what they don’t realize is that cheaper clinics, or most of the time using inferior equipment. So yeah, maybe you’re paying less per session, but it’s gonna take you so many more sessions to get to that end result. And not only that. The results are sometimes inconsistent. You might get burned, you might not see any results at all. You’re gonna see side effects, so in the end, you end up spending more money. More time for a worse outcome. What’s the point of that? You have to look at the total cost and not the cost per single session. Mistake number two, not understanding the technology. Most clients, for some reason, assume that all lasers are created equally, but guess what? They’re not even close. There’s a huge difference between a true picosecond laser and one that’s. Not a picosecond laser, but marketed as pico. There’s a lot of that going around right now. The difference comes down to the pulse duration or how quickly that energy pulse is hitting the pigment. A shorter pulse duration means higher energy levels can be used safely, resulting in better pigment shattering, meaning your body can clear it more efficiently. So in other words, the quicker the pulse duration, the higher the level of energy that can be used. And if the higher energy can be used, then the pigment shatters more efficiently. So if you don’t understand the technology, you’re basically going into this whole process blind and hoping for the best results. It’s important to find the right device. Or devices to use for your unique situation. Mistake number three, expecting fast results. This one is huge. A lot of people come in thinking, I just wanna get rid of this thing as quickly as possible, and I get it. Nobody wants to drag this process out, but guess what? Tattoo removal. Does not work like that. The laser breaks down the pigment, but it’s actually your body and your immune system that’s removing it. It’s not extracting pigment from your skin. Your skin’s not gonna break. It’s just breaking the pigment down and over time, your immune system, your lymphatic system. It’s gonna come and pick up those pigment particles. So the entire process is limited to how efficient your body is working. You can’t speed that up. How are you gonna speed that up? There’s some things that you can do to help the process, but overall, you’re not gonna speed up your body. So what ends up happening is people try to rush it. They try to come in too soon. They do treatments too frequently, and what that ends up doing is it doesn’t allow your skin. Enough time to heal and your immune system is taxed. So if you’re not giving your body a chance to do the work, then you’re actually being counterproductive with coming in too frequently. So instead of speeding things up, you’re actually reducing the efficiency of each treatment. You’re doing more, and you’re spending more to get less. This is one of those situations where you just can’t rush biology. Your patience directly affects the results. The best results always come from proper spacing, not aggressive scheduling. Mistake number four, starting without a plan. A lot of people jump into tattoo removal without really thinking about the end goal. Do you want full removal? Do you want to just fade it for a coverup? Do you wanna remove just a part of the tattoo, or do you wanna get rid of the whole thing? Those are all completely different strategies. When you don’t have a plan, you end up wasting sessions. You may go too far or you may remove part of a tattoo and then decide later on you wanna remove the whole thing. You’re wasting time, you’re wasting money. The best bet is to come in to the tattoo removal process, knowing exactly what your end goal is before you even start. Tattoo removal should be approached strategically and not casually. Mistake number five, ignoring the aftercare and the lifestyle. It happens a lot, believe it or not. You come in here, you spend all that money, you go through some pain, and then you don’t follow the aftercare. I don’t really get it, but it happens a lot. This is something that people underestimate all of the time. Doing the laser session is just a part of the process. What happens after the session and in between sessions is just as important. If you’re out in the sun, if you’re not taking care of the skin. Picking at it, scratching at it, and even beyond that, your overall health matters. It’s your immune system that’s breaking down this pigment, hydration, circulation, exercise, sleep, eating properly, staying hydrated, being happy. All of those things play a huge role in the efficacy of the laser. So if you do all those things, then you’re gonna see much better results than if you don’t trust me. At the end of the day, your body’s doing most of the work. The laser is just getting the party started. This is real talk. After doing this for years. I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen people get great results, and I’ve seen people get poor results with the same type of tattoo. The same location on the body. What’s the difference? Clients who struggle most are usually the ones that aren’t following aftercare, that are chasing the cheapest prices, that are using the wrong lasers and didn’t follow a plan. Clients who get the best results are the ones who understand the process. They trust the timing. And they don’t rush it. Tattoo removal is actually pretty predictable if it’s done the right way. So if you’re thinking about getting tattoo removal or if you’ve already started, then just let me tell you something. Most bad outcomes are preventable. If you avoid these mistakes, you’re ahead of most people before you even started the process, and that’s really the goal. You wanna see great results, you wanna spend as little money as possible, set it up properly and everything else becomes a lot easier. If you found this episode helpful, please like, share, subscribe to the channel. I would greatly appreciate that. We’re hoping to get this channel out there so it can help people become better educated about laser tattoo removal. And so our potential clients who are coming into our studios are more informed before they start the process. And if you haven’t heard, we are opening a new studio in Ontario in York. That should be in June, sometime of 2026. And we are also franchising across Canada and soon in the US of A. So if you’re interested in starting your own laser clinic or if you have one that is existing and you wanna team up with us, give us a shout. Reach out. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks a lot for watching The Faded podcast, and we will see you again next time.