Tattoo Removal · Suitability · Pacific Plaza
Whether your tattoo is suitable for laser removal depends on five things: the ink colours, how the tattoo was made, your skin type, how your skin scars, and your health and medicines at the time. Dr Sin Yong assesses each at Atelier Aesthetics and tells you plainly which parts are likely to fade.
Most tattoos can be lightened, and many can be cleared, but not all tattoos can be removed completely. You are a reasonable candidate when the tattoo sits on healthy, untanned skin, a laser can target its colours, you have no worrying history of scarring, and you accept a staged course in which full clearance is not promised.
Five Factors
No single feature settles it; most tattoos have some points for and some against.
| Factor | In your favour | Makes it harder |
|---|---|---|
| Ink colour | Black and dark blue | Green and some blues; yellow and white are the hardest; red can cause an allergic reaction as it breaks down |
| How it was made | Amateur tattoos, often sparse, uneven and shallow | Dense, even professional ink, layered work and cover-ups |
| Skin type | Any type can be assessed | Fitzpatrick III to V carries more risk of temporary darkening or slow-recovering paleness |
| Scarring | Flat skin, no history of raised scars | A raised tattoo, or keloids on the earlobes, chest, shoulders or after surgery |
| Timing and health | Healed, untanned skin, no interfering medicines | Pregnancy, a fresh tan, broken skin, recent isotretinoin |
Colour And Skin
Each ink colour absorbs some wavelengths far better than others, so a full-colour piece may need more than one wavelength and some colours may only lighten.
The laser also passes through the pigment in your own skin to reach the ink. In medium and darker skin, Dr SY generally favours 1064 nm, starts with conservative energy, often treats a test area first and makes sun protection part of the plan. How the picosecond pulse breaks ink apart is on the pico laser page; the full treatment, including the wavelength for each colour, is on tattoo removal.
Not Yet
Cosmetic tattoos on the brows, eyeliner or lips may contain pigments that turn darker or grey under laser, so a small test area is treated and checked after healing first. For a small tattoo where a fine scar would be acceptable, surgical excision by referral to a plastic surgeon can be simpler.
At Atelier
Dr SY examines the tattoo's colours, density, layering and any scarring, notes where it sits and your skin type, and asks about medicines, allergies and past treatments. You then receive a written plan: the wavelengths, whether a test area comes first, and how sessions will be staged. Their number is not fixed in advance; it follows from how the ink responds. What a written quote takes into account is set out on how we quote, and healing between sessions on tattoo removal aftercare. Dr Sin Yong holds a Key Opinion Leader appointment with DEKA.
Dr Sin Yong holds a Key Opinion Leader appointment with DEKA.
Atelier Aesthetics · Owned by AYA
9 Scotts Road, Pacific Plaza #12-01A, Singapore 228210 · +65 8023 7170
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