Lasers remove tattoo by breaking up the pigment colors with high-intensity light beam. Black tattoo pigment absorbs all laser wavelengths, making it the easiest color to treat. Other colors can also be treated but to a lesser extent.

The “standard modality for tattoo removal” is the non-invasive removal of tattoo pigments using Q-switched lasers. Different types of Q-switched lasers are used to target different colors. Depending on the specific light absorption spectra of the tattoo pigments, typically black and other darker colored inks can be removed completely using Q-switched lasers while lighter colors such as yellows and greens are very difficult to remove. Success depends on a wide variety of factors including skin color, ink color and the depth at which the ink was applied.