Successful and rapid treatment of blue and green tattoo pigment with a novel picosecond laser.

BACKGROUND: While the understanding and technology of laser tattoo removal has advanced much over the last 5 decades, treatments and results remain far from perfect. With currently available devices, treatment courses are often painful and prolonged with mixed results. We describe the successful and rapid treatment of 12 tattoos containing blue and/or green pigment with a novel, picosecond, 755-nm alexandrite laser.

OBSERVATIONS: All previously untreated multicolored tattoos as well as tattoos recalcitrant to treatment demonstrated at least 75% clearance of blue and green pigment after 1 or 2 treatments with a novel, picosecond, 755-nm alexandrite laser. More than two-thirds of these tattoos approached closer to 100% clearance.

CONCLUSIONS: While additional future studies are needed, we believe that this new technology is more effective in targeting blue and green pigment, resulting in expedited clearance with less collateral injury to surrounding tissue.