The tattoo ink particles lie within the skins dermis layer and as when any foreign substance enters the body, our scavenger cells in the skin (known as phagocytes) race to the area like the videogame Pacman, to engulf and dispose of the entity. The tattoo ink particles however are too big for the cells to attack. If you were to look under a microscope, the ink would look like a big rock next to the blood cells.

This is where the laser comes in to effect.

The procedure works by emitting very short-lived, high energy wavelengths of light known as a photo acoustic blast which breaks up the tattoo ink into smaller particles. Their extremely short-lived pulses (around a few billionths of a second) called nanoseconds, means that there is minimal heat energy transferred to the skin and this minimises damage to the skin.

The ink particles are now fragmented into small particles, that allow the bodies Pacman cells to digest and remove through the lymphatic system, resulting in less tattoo pigment and a gradual disappearance of the tattoo.