The world’s FIRST ever commercial laser tattoo patient…

The other day I was training some very nice ladies and showed them a couple of photos of a tattoo I had treated with a Q-switched ruby laser. I realised, as I was talking to them, that this tattoo was the very first tattoo to be treated in our new, commercial clinic. Prior to this… Continue reading The world’s FIRST ever commercial laser tattoo patient…

How strongly do blood and melanin absorb light energy and how does this affect laser/IPL treatments?

WARNING – This post is a bit more scientific than my usual stuff. BUT, it is worth persevering because you will (hopefully) understand more about your laser/IPL treatments, if you do… When we fire light energy at the skin, to treat hair, blood vessel, pigmentation etc, we know that some of the energy is absorbed… Continue reading How strongly do blood and melanin absorb light energy and how does this affect laser/IPL treatments?

Laser Tattoo Removal – wavelengths and anisotropy

I’ve just made a couple of little animations looking at the differences between the laser wavelengths we use for tattoo removal and how anisotropy comes into play. You might be surprised at what actually happens in the skin. Anisotropy is rarely discussed in the laser tattoo world, yet it has significant effects on treatment outcomes.… Continue reading Laser Tattoo Removal – wavelengths and anisotropy

Back-scattered light from the skin is much more than we think…

My Letter describing back-scattered laser radiation from the skin has been published in the ‘open market’ by Springer! I’m very pleased that they have done this. However, I am now thinking that the levels of back-scattered light are higher than I first thought. The is coming from new work I have been doing looking at… Continue reading Back-scattered light from the skin is much more than we think…

Laser spot size – how it changes with distance from the target…

Most laser systems have a lens to focus the laser energy down to a sale spot diameter (see figure 1 below). However, in many systems, the focal point (where the spot diameter is the smallest) is outside the handpiece assembly. This has a potentially hazardous effect if not properly understood! The problem with this design… Continue reading Laser spot size – how it changes with distance from the target…

Experiments with India ink and a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser

What happens when India ink absorbs laser energy? I irradiated some dry India ink trapped between two glass slides here (the ink was allowed to dry overnight). I used 5 J/cm^2 with a 1064 nm wavelength. As you can see, the laser energy ‘vapourises’ the ink and leaves voids behind. But, very little ink leaves… Continue reading Experiments with India ink and a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser

Calibrating your laser – making sense of the numbers…

How do you calibrate your lasers so that the numbers on your laser screen actually mean something useful? Well, there is a process which you need to follow. The video shows this process in detail. So, you need to measure the laser energy for each of your ‘input’ settings using an energy meter designed for… Continue reading Calibrating your laser – making sense of the numbers…

Back-scattered light from the skin is much more than we think…

My Letter describing back-scattered laser radiation from the skin has been published in the ‘open market’ by Springer! I’m very pleased that they have done this. However, I am now thinking that the levels of back-scattered light are higher than I first thought. The is coming from new work I have been doing looking at… Continue reading Back-scattered light from the skin is much more than we think…