Tattoo Removal Pain: Does Tattoo Removal Hurt?

If you want to learn all about tattoo removal pain, you’ll LOVE this guide.

You may have heard that it’s pretty painful… Is it really?

What’s the real story?

The tattoo removal pain level is different for everyone, and depends on where the ink is located on your body.

Related: How to Predict Number of Treatments

The Truth is – It Does Hurt a Bit

How bad does it hurt? It really all depends on your tolerance to pain.

Luckily, the treatments are extremely quick. Most patients describe it as:

“much less painful than I thought”

The feeling of discomfort is essential. It’s one of the most important elements that makes a treatment effective.

Does Tattoo Removal Hurt?

If it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t working.

The laser beam needs to penetrate deep into your skin quick & fast (without damaging it) to shatter the ink so your body can absorb and remove it.

New Lasers are Less Painful

We’ve come a long way since the days of highly invasive treatments, burning and related skin damage. The new laser technology has improved dramatically.

Does laser tattoo removal really work?

What exactly has changed?

The newer lasers pass harmlessly through your skin. Older technology burns the surrounding skin, resulting in painful damage, burning and related scarring.

Nowadays, the tattoo removal pain scale associated with treatment should be bearable.

However, you need to find a clinic utilizing only the newest-generation lasers and skin numbing cold air chillers.

The Level is Similar to Getting Inked

How bad does tattoo removal hurt?

In our honest opinions, The treatments hurt about as much as getting tattoo’d.

This is coming from someone who’s experienced both. We’ve treated our own ink, so we can make honest comparisons between the two.

But here’s the good news:

Laser treatments only last a couple of minutes, depending on the size and complexity of your tattoo. Getting inked can take hours.

We’ve done full back sessions and sleeves with clients hardly flinching, and ring finger sessions needing 2 – 3 breaks.

The pain level really depends on the person.

What does laser tattoo removal feel like?

The best way to describe it is a small rubber band snapping against your skin.

Some Areas Hurt More than Others

Just like with getting tattoo’d, some areas of the body hurt more than others.

One thing to consider is the laser repetition rate, or the speed at which the treatment is being performed.

We use higher repetition rates (10 hertz) on sensitive areas of the body. This quickens the treatments on those areas.

Parts of the body where the tattoo removal pain scale is higher:

• Rib cage
• Upper inner arm
• Feet
• Behind neck

A treatment with a higher repetition rate will double or triple the speed at which it’s being performed, so we’ll be able to get it over with much quicker.

Skin Chillers Work Great

One of the most important aspects of being a great clinic is focusing on patient comfort.

The traditional skin numbing method has always been through the use of ice packs.

However, times have changed, there’s now a much better option for laser tattoo removal pain relief.

The Zimmer Cryo-6 advanced skin chiller.

It works by applying cold air (as cold as minus 30 degrees) to the tattoo site before, during and after each treatment.

Here at Ink Revoke, we believe that these are the safest, most effective ways to numb the skin, without losing effectiveness.

Check out this helpful resource:

Pain Management During Treatment

Skin Numbing Creams & Injectables

Numbing creams and injectables are great for reducing laser tattoo removal pain after treatment.

For best results, the creams can be applied thirty minutes prior to treatment to numb your skin.

But here’s the catch:

They can hinder your removal results. It’s believed that they can reduce a treatment’s effectiveness by as much as 20%.