Introduction to Tattoo Removal

Stage Left is a tattoo and piercing shop that provides safe, fast, and effective laser tattoo removal to help clients achieve their desired look. Our advanced laser is designed to completely remove or fade unwanted tattoo ink while delivering comfortable treatments and great results. We are excited to offer advanced laser tattoo removal at our Shelbyville, Indiana tattoo shop.

Despite their permanent design, tattoos naturally lose color over time. This is because your immune system immediately and continuously works to remove the foreign ink particles in your skin. This inherent immune process explains why tattoos fade gradually over many years.

When a tattoo is applied, ink particles are injected into the skin's dermis, the deepest layer below the epidermis. Once the tattoo is applied, your immune system is triggered and sends bacteria-eating cells to remove the foreign ink particles through your lymphatic system naturally. However, the ink particles' large size makes it very difficult for tiny cells to absorb and remove the ink fully. Instead, the bacteria-eating cells continuously scrape away small fragments of ink over an entire lifetime, causing your tattoo to fade while remaining permanently on display.

Laser tattoo removal works by assisting and speeding up the natural fading process by breaking down the large ink particles into nanoparticles that your body can easily absorb and flush away. Our Astanza Duality tattoo removal laser uses the most powerful Q-switching technology to safely penetrate the skin, targeting only the unwanted ink, and shatters the ink rapidly and efficiently without damaging any surrounding skin tissue. The fast pulsing of the laser is one of the reasons why you don't get any scarring when using advanced tattoo removal lasers like the Astanza Duality.

During a laser tattoo removal treatment, the laser emits ultra-quick pulses of light energy into the skin. The wavelengths of light energy are selectively absorbed by the ink particles, causing them to heat up and shatter into tiny fragments. Depending on the colors in the tattoo, different wavelengths can be used to target different colors. This process is repeated over multiple treatments spaced about six to eight weeks apart, and each session targets the shallowest layer of ink until the desired amount of fading or removal is achieved.

Stage Left Tattoo and Piercing has a team of expert cover-up artists, and we are excited about what we can do for clients now that we can fade tattoos before starting a cover-up. Tattoo artists are big fans of laser tattoo removal because laser tattoo removal can be used to fade or fix selective parts of a tattoo rather than just completely erasing them.

Tattoo artists worldwide, including the talented team at Stage Left, use laser tattoo removal to improve cover-up tattoos. In many cases, cover-up tattoos are limited in design, size, ink colors, and the amount of ink layering required due to the pre-existing artwork. To continue to provide the best results for clients, Stage Left Tattoo's Shelbyville shop uses laser tattoo removal 

technology to lighten an unwanted tattoo to create a cleaner canvas for our tattoo artists to work on. Getting laser tattoo removal isn't required as a part of the cover-up process. Still, it's certainly a conversation worth having with your tattoo artist before starting your cover-up tattoo.

Tattoo fading not only gives our artists at Stage Left more flexibility with their work, but it also gives you more creativity and options for your cover-up tattoo. For example, instead of limiting your tattoo cover-up to a large black piece, we can lighten your tattoo and work in various design elements, colors, and dimensions to give you a tattoo you're pleased to wear.

If you're interested in fading a tattoo for a cover-up or selectively removing a part of your tattoo, contact Stage Left Tattoo in Shelbyville for more information or to book an appointment.