Male model praises new tattoo removal laser which blasted him ‘trillions of times a second’ to obliterate his hated teenage inking

A state-of-the-art laser gun that shoots into the skin billions of times per second can completely erase tattoos, but causes little pain and leaves no scars.

The first innovation in tattoo removal in a decade, the LightSense system has been shown in clinical studies to be highly effective and works well even on black and brown skin, something that used to be difficult, if not impossible.

Tattoos are created by introducing ink into the dermis (the middle layer of the skin) with a needle. Due to the large size of the ink particles, the immune system cannot break them down, so cells known as microphages surround the ink and remain in place, naturalizing it. As a result, the tattoo design becomes trapped in the dermis.

Older laser removal methods, while effective, were often exhausting and left the skin swollen, blistered, sore and bruised, sometimes for weeks. Repeated sessions can also leave a combination of residual ink and pale scarring, sometimes known as a ghost tattoo.

One patient who has benefited from LightSense is model and fitness trainer Jack Revell.

The most advanced way to remove tattoos has, until now, been the use of a picosecond or picolaser, which emits up to a billion pulses per second. The pulses break up the ink particles, helping the body absorb them and make them disappear.

But LightSense is a form of femtosecond laser, meaning it is capable of emitting a quadrillion (one quadrillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000) pulses per second.

New Jersey-based dermatologist Dr. Steven Hubert, who was part of the team that developed the LightSense laser at Princeton University, said: “Pico lasers were a huge improvement over older tattoo removal methods. but they were not as effective or as painless as everyone had hoped.

‘Our laser has a shorter (faster) pulse duration, so less energy is needed to apply the impacts to the tattoo ink. This means less damage to surrounding tissue.’

LightSense is currently offered at a single clinic, NAAMA in central London, where more than 18,000 treatments have been carried out in the last two years.

In clinical trials, patients with skin types ranging from pale and white to dark brown achieved at least 50 percent removal of their tattoo after three sessions. On lighter skin tones, the laser was effective on back, violet, red, yellow and orange tints. On darker skin tones, only the black inks lightened significantly.

Colored inks have always been more difficult to remove as they reflect laser light, making them harder to break down.

Research also shows that post-treatment reactions, such as swelling and redness, blisters and itching, are rare, affecting less than one in ten patients.

One in three working-age Britons has a tattoo, including one in nine with a visible tattoo on their face, neck, forearms, wrists or hands, according to a YouGov survey.

Two-thirds of people regret at least one of their tattoos, with someone’s name being the main reason. About one in ten have requested expulsion, while another 30 percent have considered it, according to Statista.

LightSense costs from £140 per session for a small tattoo, less than two inches square, and between £200 and £340 per session for larger designs. Black tattoos usually require ten sessions.

One patient who has benefited from LightSense is model and fitness trainer Jack Revell.

The 34-year-old Londoner got his first tattoo, a star on his right hip, when he was just 16, a decision he came to regret.

“It took me about 20 minutes to get the tattoo and at first I thought it was cool to be a bit rebellious,” says Jack. “But that went away when I was in my early 20s and I realized it was a silly mistake.”

Jack, who started modeling at age 18, discovered that tattooing was affecting his career.

“It was just above the pant line, which meant it was visible when I took off my shirt,” he says. “Back then, tattoos were not as accepted in modeling as they are today, and some jobs specified ‘no tattoos’ in casting.”

In 2015 he decided to try laser removal, without much success. “It was very painful,” says Jack. ‘Like someone was stabbing you with a lit cigarette over and over again. He left blisters that took weeks to heal and looked worse than before as they disappeared a little but not completely. I thought I would have to learn to live with it.

In 2020, his then-girlfriend mentioned that he had signed up to be part of a clinical trial for a new type of tattoo removal laser. “She had a tattoo on her finger that she hated,” says Jack. “I signed up for the test too.”

Jack had the first of 24 sessions in May of that year.

And he adds: “They gave me an anesthetic cream and I could barely feel the laser. It was like a small electric shock. Then they put a little cream and a clear dressing on it. There were no blisters or pain and I was able to continue with my normal life.

‘I had sessions every two weeks for about six months, then every three, until the tattoo disappeared. I had been skeptical at first, but it really went away.

‘I’ve had a few other tattoos since the first one, but I don’t hate any of them enough to have them removed. But it’s good to know it’s an option.”