Considering Removal
Choosing a Provider
How to tell a competent clinic from a confident one.
Choosing a tattoo removal provider is the most important call you will make in this whole process. Anyone can buy a laser, and in much of the United States the person operating it doesn’t have to be a doctor, and the rules change from state to state. That leaves you doing the vetting, usually in a consultation room where everyone is friendly and nobody volunteers what they can’t do. The good news is that the questions worth asking are simple, and the answers tell you a lot.
If you read one thing here, make it how to choose a tattoo removal provider. It’s the checklist to take with you.
Four questions worth asking
“Who’s operating the laser?”
Training, not job title
Who holds the handpiece, what training they’ve had, and whether a physician is on site. The rules vary by state, so the answer matters more than the signage.
“Which laser, and why?”
The machine has to match the ink
Different wavelengths hit different colors. A provider who can explain why they’re choosing one for your tattoo is telling you something.
“How many sessions?”
Listen for a range
Anyone who gives you one confident number is guessing. A good answer is a range, with the reasons it might land at either end.
“What if it doesn’t clear?”
The question they’d rather skip
Complete clearance isn’t guaranteed. How a provider handles this question tells you how they’ll handle the outcome.
Wavelength and clearance context from StatPearls, “Laser Tattoo Removal”, published by the National Library of Medicine.
Everything in this section
Vetting a clinic and knowing what a good answer sounds like.
How to Choose a Tattoo Removal Provider
Of all the decisions in tattoo removal, this is the one that matters most, and it’s the one clinics are least honest about, because every clinic’s answer is “choose us.” Here’s the part they tend to underplay: your results depend far more on the person holding the laser than on the laser itself. The American […]
