Studio Kiku
All episodes

The Faded Podcast · November 7, 2025

Why Red Tattoos Are Risky to Laser Off

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.

Listening to this and thinking about your own removal?

Book a free consultation at Studio Kiku.

Book a Free Consultation