Show Notes
Billy explains why heavily red tattoos are among the riskiest to remove with a laser, focusing on the allergy potential of red pigment both historically and today. He shares a story about a friend in Japan whose small red tattoo would not heal and had to be surgically removed, then breaks down why breaking red pigment into particles can be dangerous once it moves through the lymphatic system. He closes with the categories of tattoos he recommends leaving alone.
Topics Covered
Why red pigment can trigger allergies
Older red tattoo pigments contained ingredients like mercury sulfide and cinnabar that caused allergic reactions. Even modern synthetic or organic pigments can be unpredictable, so you never fully know how your body will respond.
A real allergic reaction story from Japan
Billy describes a friend who got a tiny red tattoo on his ankle that would not heal, bubbling up for months as his body tried to push the pigment out. It eventually had to be surgically removed, and he recovered fully afterward.
The lymphatic risk of breaking red down
When laser tattoo removal shatters pigment into tiny particles, your body absorbs them and moves them through the lymph nodes. If you have an allergic response to red at that scale, the consequences can be serious.
Doing test spots before committing
If you still decide to remove red pigment, Billy recommends starting with test spots to see how your body reacts. For a large, super saturated red piece, his advice is to leave it alone.
Tattoos Billy suggests not lasering
He lists the categories to be cautious with, including tattoos with a lot of white, red pigment on darker skin, hybrid colours that confuse the laser, and ultra saturated red work.
Full Transcript
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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. If you have a tattoo like a big, huge hannya 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.
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. 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. 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. Those are some tattoos that I would recommend not removing with the laser.