Which tattoo colors can you remove?

Hey Dorian,

I got some pretty wicked tattoos: tribal stamp around my left wrist, my own words to live by on my upper back. But my biggest one is my flower blossom that uses quite a few colors. Is this going to be a problem if I decide to remove it? Thanks man"

It definitely makes things more complicated, that's for sure. Some tattoo removal methods are very sensitive to the type of ink pigment being used.


For example with laser methods, black and red pigment won't be an issue. But others will especially if they're lighter. The problem is that lasers have difficulty targeting these ink layers.


Nontraditional colors, nontraditional methods

The flip side of the coin is that it doesn't matter if you're tattoo is pink, purple, or some crazy lime green if you use methods like the apricot scrub mentioned in my guide .
 
That's because exfoliation methods don't discriminate, they simply wear off dead layers of skin until the tattoo is exfoliated.

Of course this is one of several methods discussed in the guide.


Coverups

Another thing you need to keep in mind especially if you're considering another tattoo is "Will this be something I can modify or mask later?" For example pink flower petals will be much harder to mask than black which can be easily turned into a wheel, astrological symbol, or many other things.
 
But you'll never need to change that tattoo, am I right? There's a reason you're on this page isn't there :) 

I have tattoos of various types on every limb in my body. And I'm perfectly cool with it because I know how to reverse, cover, or modify all of them. As a professional artist and remover, I guess that extra bit of knowledge helps. All I can say is be smart about your upcoming tattoo and always have a backup plan.

The laser tattoo removal process explained

"Dorian, I know you preach natural tattoo removal. And after reading your guide I am already planning to buy my ingredients. But my wife is in the laser removal camp and has already done her first session. How much longer of a ride are we in for?"

Well the good news is that since you'll see results faster than she could hope to, you may be able to get her off of those expensive laser treatments :-)

But let's say she sticks to her guns and goes the full laser route. As much as I advocate the all-natural approach, I never say that laser removal in ineffective, since it's not. It's just more expensive and time-consuming. And a higher risk of side effects but that's the topic for a different article.

Six months minimum for laser-based methods

Why does it take so long? The sessions themselves are actually pretty quick, the technicians will laser the affected area for only a few minutes at a time. Their goal is to slowly vaporize the subdermal ink.

So why does it take so long? Because the process is imperfect and skin cells around the ink are also heated and damaged to some degree. If the damage is excessive we call that a complication or even a scar. But it happens every time to some degree, and that's why your wife needs to wait several weeks before she can go in for another session.

Six months is about the minimum time you can expect before a laser-based treatment reaches a satisfactory level of fading. How long can it go on for? Well the sky is really the limit, but as a probable upper bounds I'll say about two years. And those will be for bigger or more complex tattoos.

Color counts for removal time

Color heavily plays a part as well. Black, red, and deep blue tends to fade faster. Violets, greens, and other light colors especially will take much longer to remove, closer to two years than six months.

Sensitive areas?

If you have a tattoo on one of the sensitive parts of your body, first of all you're a trooper for getting it done in the first place! Second, yes it's going to take longer too. As the skin is sensitive more time between sessions is needed to make sure everything remains safe, or at least as safe as possible.

All-natural tattoo removal isn't just about money

Have you checked out my laserless tattoo removal guide yet? 

A lot of people think at home tattoo removal is just about saving money, when in fact I think most of my customers get more out of removing it in just a few weeks then waiting months or years! I mean, how long do you really want to wait to get that ex's name off after a breakup? If you're going back to the dating scene, do you really want to wait a year with someone else's name on your shoulder?

Methods based on exfoliation seem fast when compared to year-long laser removal. But I actually consider it to be a slow process. First of all you need to apply in exfoliant several times for day (for most of the methods described in the guide). Layer by layer, the ink starts coming off. It takes several weeks before satisfactory level of fate is achieved. 

But hey, I'll take weeks over years any day!

Remove a tattoo completely, or just cover it up?

"I have a tattoo of my ex's name right across the front of my chest. She was great until she wasn't, that's all I can really say about her! Obviously I need to get this off but my friend who had laser removal said I might want to just do a cover-up instead. What are your thoughts, Dorian?"

Coverups can do a lot more than you think

You may think that covering up Jessica or Cassondra in block letters would be a difficult job. You might be surprised. Oftentimes we can hide these in dragons or other extremely complex designs. If the pattern is written in cursive, vines are an option, mystical figures, you name it. Any artist worth his salt can take what you have as a base and suggest multiple options to you.

As for me? I guess I got lucky because my ex had a short name :-) Lots of options there.
 

If you want it totally gone

Okay, let's say you've made up your mind already and you don't want the tattoo at all anymore.

Well you already know I'm an advocate of all-natural, laserless removal. Cheaper, safer, and more effective if you just follow the darn guide! (Here it is by the way


The thing I love about home based removal methods is that they reinvigorate the skin as well. Laser takes away, but exfoliation methods add fresh new layers of skin using safe, skin healthy ingredients. 

For example my aloe vera gel method not only removes the tattoo but softens the skin around it! Yes, it requires 3 to 4 daily applications, but when you're talking just a few weeks removal time versus six months minimum for laser-based methods, the extra short-term effort is well worth it!

How to remove tattoos naturally

Hey Dorian,

When you talk about natural tattoo removal, how does it work exactly? I get that you're using body-safe, natural ingredients, but I don't understand how they act on the body to remove tattoos."

I've been getting a lot of questions about this. It seems a lot of people appreciate the safety aspects of natural removal (compared to laser), but don't quite understand how natural removal works.

Accelerated exfoliation

Did you know that your skin exfoliates on its own, without you doing anything? 

It's true, in fact the layers of skin that you see are actually dead. That's why you can rub a fingernail against your skin and not even feel anything. But if you push deep or use the sharpened end of a pair of scissors – different story. You're going to feel it, and it's not going to be pleasant. In fact you may see some red. You didn't strike oil, but you did strike living skin cells.

Accelerated exfoliation gets to that layer. It does so by doing something the body normally doesn't do on its own -- it increases the rate at which living skin cells die and rise to the surface.

Now this may sound like a bad thing, but the other side to the exfoliation process is that young skin cells mature to take the place of the ones on the layer above them that much quicker as well. So there's no harm, and you get the added benefit of bringing up the deep subcutaneous skin layers that normally don't exfoliate at all.

These are exactly the layers that tattoo artists target as they embed ink. This is why tattoos hold for a long time even when the top layers of your skin do not.

You can see where this is going. To remove the tattoo, we then need to exfoliate deeper layers than normal. Here’s how: First we use various ingredients to enhance skin exfoliation. Then these deeper layers come to the top. The ink trapped alongside the deep layers comes up as well and wipes off with the brush of a towel.

Of course all of this is an abbreviated explanation and it's not going to happen that quickly, in fact it takes weeks. But when you compare that to the much slower “vaporize, scar, heal, and vaporize again” laser approach to ink removal, who in their right mind would choose laser?

Now you know why I say that the only people who choose laser removal either don't understand or have never heard about natural deep exfoliation. It's just plain a better method for tattoo removal.

Thankfully you don't have to make that mistake. If you don't already have a copy of the Laserless Tattoo Removal Guide, everything we talked about is in there, including the details on how to get it done with skin safe ingredients from your grocery store

Dorian Davis's Laserless Tattoo Removal Guide review

Doreen Davis was kind enough to send me a copy of the Laserless Tattoo Removal Guide in exchange for an honest review. I know a lot of people with tattoos who would rather see them faded, covered, or gone altogether so I was eager to see and apply Dorian's teachings.

Initial Insights

The first thing I appreciated about the guide was that it actually explained what tattoos were at a deep level, including where they are located within the skin, and a host of other details I had no idea about. This was a pretty big deal to me because if I was going to be changing my body, I wanted to know what was going on. 

Natural vs laser removal

You probably already know that laser tattoo removal is currently the "hot thing" on TV and local billboards. Heck I probably wouldn't of just done it myself if it wasn't so expensive! 

But Dorian really goes into the laser removal process in a way you never hear about at a consult. He shows both the good and the bad that comes with using high-powered, medical grade lasers to vaporize skin ink. Without copying the whole chapter I'll say it really widened my eyes and made me rethink laser tattoo removal in a completely different way.

Actionability

Now were getting to the nuts and bolts, the actual tattoo removal methods. There are several of them each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Most of the methods rely on activating the skin's natural exfoliation process in order to drive subsurface ink up to the top. That's a much cleaner process than laser and the price is several magnitudes cheaper as well. 

Even a skeptic would be silly not to start with these methods, considered laser is something like $200-$500 for a single session.


Overall

Do you have a tattoo? Do you want to remove it? Without paying thousands of dollars? Well then you must get The Laserless Tattoo Guide. That’s the bottom line. This is perhaps the best guide on the market for taking a tattoo off at home.

It also comes with a 60 day money back guarantee, so I suggest deciding whether to keep it or not 30 to 60 days after reading it. I've done this with other types of guides with guarantees and boy has it saved me from going down the wrong path, so take advantage.

Find the full guide here

Best of luck with your all-natural tattoo removal,