Tattoo Removal Cost

Cost by size

Tattoo removal cost in Seoul is set by the size of the inked area

The short answer

Rewind Plastic Surgery in Gangnam, Seoul charges for laser tattoo removal by the area of skin the ink covers. Shot counts play no part in the bill. The clinic's rate matrix names three size bands against everyday objects, a coin, one business card and two business cards, and each band carries its own rate for a visit on the Pico K picosecond laser. A full course costs the band rate multiplied by the number of visits the tattoo needs, plus VAT, and that number is estimated only after the tattoo has been examined.

This page is about how the bill is built. What the laser does to ink is set out on the clinic's main tattoo removal page.

Pricing by area suits ink because tattoos are uneven. Two pieces with the same outline can hold very different amounts of pigment, and a pulse counter would bill the denser one more heavily for the same visit. A size band keeps the price of one visit predictable and leaves the harder question, how many visits, to the examination.

Enquiries from abroad usually ask for a single figure by message. The rate for one visit can be given that way, because it depends only on size. The course total cannot. It rests on a count that belongs to the ink, and a number offered for a tattoo nobody has seen would be an estimate stacked on another estimate.

Building the figure

How a tattoo removal total is worked out, step by step

The arithmetic is short. What makes it uncertain is the second step, and the order below is the order it happens in at the clinic.

01Measure

The tattoo is matched to a size band

The tattoo is examined and photographed, and its footprint is compared with the coin, single-card and two-card bands on the rate matrix. A tattoo that runs past the largest band is measured and quoted at consultation, because the matrix names no rate beyond it.

02Estimate

The visit count is given as a range

Published work on tattoo removal uses the Kirby-Desai scale, which scores site, skin type, amount of ink, layering, scarring, tissue change and colour to predict a count. In a 2024 retrospective series on a Q-switched laser, the treatments patients actually received averaged 5.09 against a scale prediction of 9.9. The scale helps with planning, and that study shows how far a real course can drift from it.

03Multiply

Band rate times visits, then VAT

The band rate is multiplied by the estimated number of visits and VAT is added on top. Because the estimate is a range, the total is a range too: lower if the ink clears at the quick end, higher if it needs the whole course.

04Revise

The total is rechecked at every visit

Each visit is compared with photographs from the last. When fading runs ahead of the estimate, the course can end early and the remaining visits are simply not booked. When it stalls, the doctor tells you before you pay for another.

Pricing

Tattoo removal prices at Rewind by size band

The three size bands below come from the clinic's rate matrix and are charged each time the area is treated. The last line is the pico tattoo removal rate carried on the main price sheet, and the doctor settles which of the two is used for your tattoo once it has been measured.

For a palm-sized tattoo the size band is set by measuring the ink at the assessment, and the total is that band rate multiplied by the visits the assessment estimates, plus VAT. In the 2024 series cited below, patients received between three and eight treatments. That range describes those patients on that device, and it is shown here only to give a sense of scale.

All rates exclude VAT and, according to the clinic's price sheet, include the cost of anaesthesia. A receipt therefore reads higher than the list by the tax alone.

Recovery

Protecting what each tattoo removal visit costs

Every visit you pay for depends on the skin healing cleanly before the next. The clinic's laser aftercare instruction is short, and following it is the cheapest part of the course.

The risks worth pricing in are skin risks: blistering, crusting, swelling and pinpoint bleeding in the days after a visit, and lightening or darkening of the treated skin or textural and raised scarring that may not settle. Incomplete clearance is possible for any tattoo, and a residual shadow can remain after the visits you budgeted for. Knowing that before the first payment is part of the quote.

Questions

Tattoo removal cost: questions before the first payment