A novel titanium sapphire picosecond‐domain laser safely and effectively removes purple, blue, and green tattoo inks

BACKGROUND: Green, blue, and purple tattoo pigments are often the colors most resistant to laser removal. Recently, the first ever production picosecond‐domain laser with a 785 nm wavelength was developed to improve the rate of clearance of green, blue, and purple tattoo inks. METHODS: Twenty‐two tattoos from 15 subjects with skin phototypes II–IV were enrolled in the study. A total of four treatments were administered using a single 785 nm picosecond‐domain laser wavelength. Blinded assessment of digital, cross‐polarized photographs taken approximately 8 weeks following the last treatment was performed using an 11‐point clearance scale. RESULTS: Fourteen subjects with 21 tattoos completed all study visits. The 21 tattoos contained the following pigments: black (n = 15), green (n = 13), blue (n = 8), yellow (n = 5), purple (n = 4), and red (n = 3). Treatments were performed with a 2‐4‐mm beam diameter and fluences ranging from 1.1 to 3.1 J/cm(2). Blinded assessment of photographs found 85%, 81%, 74%, 61%, 11%, and 5% clearance from baseline photos for purple, blue, green, black, red, and yellow pigments, respectively. Treatments were well tolerated with typical erythema, edema and one case of pinpoint bleeding. No scarring was noted. CONCLUSION: This first study of a new 785 nm picosecond‐domain laser demonstrates safe and effective removal of multicolor tattoos. Although clearance was shown for a multitude of colors including black, the 785 nm laser wavelength has special affinity to purple, blue and green tattoo pigments. Lasers Surg. Med. 50:704–710, 2018. © 2018 The Authors. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.