We all make mistakes. And for many of the 45 million Americans who have tattoos, getting “inked” in the first place can – a few years later – seem like an error in judgment, or at least a decision that changing personal circumstances have rendered regrettable.
Personal tastes change. Fashions change. So do girlfriends, boyfriends and significant others. But tattoos don’t. And they don’t just go away easily, either.
Until now, that is.
Dr. Hal Brown at Reflections Aesthetics & Laser Solutions here in Vero Beach and his Cutera “enlighten” laser system can now make those skulls and crossbones and hearts with outdated names disappear.
The American Society for Dermatologic Surgery has one pointed piece of advice for those seeking a tattoo removal: “Find the right doctor,” the ASDS says, “choose someone qualified to perform tattoo removal procedures.”
By just about any reasonable set of standards, Vero Beach’s Brown is as qualified as they come.
In addition to being the medical director at Reflections Aesthetics & Laser Solutions, Brown is also the chief of staff at the Indian River Medical Center as well as a longtime primary care physician at Primary Care of the Treasure Coast.
The affable Brown, however, doesn’t waste any time boasting about his own credentials. Instead he dives straight into the topic of tattoo removal and a major advancement in laser technology.
“I think that the important thing,” says Brown, “is that this newer technology treats all skin types and all tattoo colors in a fast, efficient fashion so there are fewer treatments required [to safely remove tattoos] and less tissue damage occurs. The end result will be much, much nicer and it will be less costly than the older technology because it will require fewer treatments.”
The oldest forms of tattoo removal, gruesomely enough, consisted of attempting to peel away individual layers of living skin until the tattoo ink was no longer visible. It was a time-consuming and extraordinarily painful proposition that frequently failed but still exposed the person with the tattoo to a wide variety of debilitating and sometimes lethal infections.
More recently, nano-laser treatments offered safer but often less-then-ideal removal results. That’s in large part, Brown says, because they are limited in the colors of ink they can break down.
Black ink they could handle, but the red, green, blue and other ink colors tended to resist removal. And those older-generation lasers still caused fairly extensive skin damage and sores.
That’s not to say that even Brown’s state-of-the-art lasers are totally free of at least some discomfort.
“Different people,” says Brown, “have different pain tolerances. So for some people it’s very uncomfortable and for some people it’s not uncomfortable at all. And then there’s some in the middle.”
Brown then leans forward and dispels the idea that tattoo removals are just an in-and-out-done-the-same-day process.
“It depends on the type of the tattoo and the size of the tattoo,” Brown explains, “but the more colors involved and the more intricate the artistic work involved, the more treatments it usually takes to remove. But the average I would say – the ballpark – is three to eight treatments with this enlighten laser technology versus eight to 20 or more sessions with the older [nano laser] versions.”
That’s in no small part because the enlighten laser system Brown uses is fast. Really fast.
The older “nano” devices generate their laser pulses at a one nano-second clip or one burst every one one-billionth of a second.
Brown’s new enlighten laser, however, generates its energy pulses in “pico-seconds” or one every one-trillionth of a second and, Brown says, it offers substantially greater control of the intensity of those laser bursts. Those additional bursts allow Brown’s laser to break down all colors of ink.
Asked about pricing, Brown quite candidly explains, “There is some variability there with the size and the intricacy of the tattoo. The more colors and the larger the size, the more it costs. Roughly you could say a credit card-sized tattoo would be about $300-$400 a treatment.”
Finally, Brown adds, “there are a lot of people out there doing aesthetics [and tattoo removals] and they do it in all different ways. There are a lot of machines out there, too. But this [enlighten laser] is the top of the line and we only to use the top of the line” equipment here.
Dr. Hal Brown is at Reflections Aesthetics & Laser Solutions and Primary Care of the Treasure Coast, 1265 36th Street in Vero Beach. The phone number at Reflections Aesthetics & Laser Solutions is 772-567-7196. Their website is at: http://www.reflectionsals.com.
