Pico Laser Tattoo Removal

Picosecond laser

Pico laser tattoo removal: why a picosecond pulse is used on ink

The short answer

A picosecond laser is used for tattoo removal because its pulse is short enough to break ink particles apart mainly through pressure, with less heat reaching the surrounding skin than the older nanosecond, Q-switched devices deliver. In a randomised split-tattoo trial on black and blue tattoos, halves treated with a 755-nm picosecond laser reached higher clearance scores than halves treated with a nanosecond laser after the same five sessions. Rewind in Gangnam, Seoul uses the Pico K, which the clinic lists at 300 picoseconds and 2.9 W.

Trial results describe groups of patients treated on research devices. They are not a forecast for your tattoo, and they say nothing about the Pico K beyond the figures the clinic itself publishes.

Picosecond lasers came to tattoo work as successors to Q-switched systems, which had been the standard tool for years and still clear many tattoos. The difference between them is time. A Q-switched pulse is measured in nanoseconds, billionths of a second. A picosecond pulse is measured in trillionths, and it ends before much of its energy can spread outward as heat, so a larger share goes into fracturing the particle it hits.

Pulse length does not make a laser choose one colour over another. Wavelength decides which ink absorbs the energy, and pulse length decides what happens to the particle once it has. Rewind's Korean device note gives pulse and power figures for the Pico K but does not list its wavelengths, so which colours are in your tattoo, and how the device will be set for them, is worked out at the examination.

Mechanism

How a picosecond pass works on a tattoo at Rewind

The sequence below follows a single pass of the Pico K, from the pulse itself to the weeks afterwards when the fading actually happens.

01The pulse

The pulse ends before heat can spread far

Energy is delivered to the ink particle faster than it can diffuse into the tissue that holds it. The particle is stressed mechanically and breaks apart, while less of the energy leaks sideways as heat into the surrounding skin.

02Fragments

Finer fragments are easier to carry away

Breaking ink into smaller pieces is the reason picosecond devices are expected to clear pigment efficiently. Immune cells take up the fragments and drain them through the lymphatic system over the weeks after the visit.

03Fractional mode

A fractional picosecond pass is sometimes added

In a 2022 split study of 19 black tattoos, halves given a fractional 1064-nm picosecond pass on top of a standard pass reached more than 50 percent clearance in 84.6 percent of tattoos after three sessions, against 69.2 percent with the standard pass alone, with fewer blisters and texture changes. Rewind lists a pico fraxel treatment for skin texture; whether a fractional pass has a place in your tattoo plan is decided by the doctor.

04The course

Each pass is read against the one before

Picosecond or not, removal is a course. Photographs are compared at every visit, and the settings and spacing are adjusted to how the ink and the skin responded last time. The number of visits for your tattoo is confirmed at consultation.

Pricing

Pico laser tattoo removal rates in Gangnam, Seoul

Picosecond work on tattoos is priced by the area of ink, and the same Pico K is used whichever band applies. The three size bands come from the clinic's rate matrix; the last line is the pico tattoo removal rate on the main price sheet, and the one that applies is settled when the tattoo is measured.

Rates exclude VAT, which is added at payment, and include anaesthesia cost according to the clinic's price sheet. A tattoo larger than the biggest band is measured and quoted at consultation.

Recovery

Caring for skin after a picosecond tattoo pass

Pico passes still leave the skin with work to do. The clinic's laser aftercare is brief, and the part that matters most for a picosecond device is sun protection, because darkening was the reaction the trial found more often.

Risks after a picosecond pass include blistering, crusting, swelling and pinpoint bleeding, and in the longer term lightening or darkening of the treated skin and textural or raised scarring. In the 755-nm trial, darkening of the surrounding skin was the one reaction more common with the picosecond laser. Incomplete clearance remains possible on any device.

Questions

Pico laser tattoo removal: questions about the device