Solution

Pigment & Tattoo Removal

Pigment work gets judged hardest, because the result sits on someone's face in daylight. Here's how depth, wavelength and pulse width decide what a pigment and tattoo removal machine can honestly do.

Start with depth and diagnosis, not the spec sheet

Buyers type one phrase and expect one box. Behind it sits a mixed bag: solar lentigines, freckles, cafe au lait macules, nevus of Ota, Hori's nevus, melasma, plus amateur and professional ink. Different depths, different absorption, different behaviour under one handpiece. Some of it shouldn't go under a laser until a dermatologist has looked.

Melanin absorption falls off as wavelength rises and scattering drops with it, which is why the light and tissue chapter in our engineering archive calls 600 to 1200nm an optical window into skin.

Run that through a q-switched nd:yag system and the wavelengths sort themselves out. 532nm is absorbed strongly and stops shallow, so it owns the epidermal band: freckles, lentigines, cafe au lait macules, red ink. 1064nm is absorbed more weakly but travels deeper, where dermal melanocytes live, so nevus of Ota, Hori's nevus and blue-black ink need it. Weaker absorption sounds like a flaw. It isn't: epidermal melanin competes less for the beam at 1064nm, which makes the deeper wavelength safer on darker phototypes.

Nanoseconds: the pulse width does the work

Anderson and Parrish laid down the rule in Science in 1983. Confine the pulse to the target's thermal relaxation time and you damage the target without cooking its neighbours. Selective photothermolysis.

Our engineering archive puts a melanosome's thermal relaxation time at roughly 0.5 to 1 microsecond, tattoo ink particles far lower, in the low nanosecond range. A Q-switch fires pulses a few nanoseconds long, inside both windows. Flashlamp pulses run in milliseconds, which the same archive calls unsuited to tattoo work. Six orders of magnitude apart, and no extra energy closes that gap.

Inside the nanosecond the effect is mechanical as much as thermal. The particle absorbs faster than it sheds heat, expands, and the shockwave fractures it. Macrophages clear the debris. Tattoo ink clearance runs on a biological clock. Gradual by nature.

Choosing your platform

Two platforms cover most of this category, and they're not interchangeable. The QE-01 EO Q-switched Nd:YAG laser is the workhorse: dual wavelength, nanosecond domain, adjustable spot. Our device manuals map the colour response, 1064nm for blue, black and green-blue ink, 532nm for red.

The MF-05 multifunction E-Light IPL and RF platform plays a different role. Its filters, per our device manuals, run 530 to 1200nm for pigment and rejuvenation, 585 to 1200nm for vascular and 610 to 1200nm for hair. Broad, filtered, millisecond light, fast on diffuse sun damage in lighter skin. It doubles as a rejuvenation platform, where the economics come from. See our skin rejuvenation solution guide.

IPL will not clear a tattoo. It will not clear nevus of Ota. A distributor who sells it that way spends the next quarter handling complaints.

Parameter	QE-01 at 1064nm	QE-01 at 532nm	MF-05 IPL
Emission	1064nm laser	532nm laser	Filtered flashlamp, 530-1200nm
Pulse width	5-7 ns	5-7 ns	Millisecond domain
Fluence	Up to 14 J/cm2	Up to 6 J/cm2	Per filter and phototype
Depth bias	Dermal	Epidermal	Epidermal
Typical targets	Blue-black ink, nevus of Ota, Hori's	Freckles, lentigines, red ink	Diffuse sun damage, lentigines
Skin types	I-VI, conservative fluence and test patch above IV	I-III	Lighter phototypes

Chosen a side? Send your case mix through the Pmise enquiry form and ask for two things: the wavelength and indication matching sheet, and a configuration quote for the QE-01 or MF-05. Back comes the spec sheet and a written price.

What you're actually buying: paperwork, warranty, running costs

Physics decides the result. Paperwork decides whether you can sell it.

Our compliance archive holds CE documentation for both the Nd:YAG and E-Light families, split into LVD safety and EMC test reports with signed declarations of conformity, and the quality system is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485. Certificates carry issue and expiry dates and get reissued on audit, so ask for the current dated pack for your model and market. We won't claim a clearance we don't hold: registration runs market by market, and a CE file is not a local licence.

Warranty follows our device manuals. One year of free service against defects in materials or workmanship, with proof of purchase. Drops, unauthorised disassembly and damaged handpieces fall outside it and get billed as parts. Our service and support page adds parts and labour cover, extended packages, remote diagnostics and stocked spares.

Running costs are dull. No per-shot disposable on the Q-switch. The pump lamp drives the cost: our manuals put its life near 1000 hours and warn that output drops off past that, so budget a lamp rather than be surprised by one. IPL side, it's lamps, filters and handpieces. Training runs off the manual, which covers installation step by step, plus remote sessions for your team. Price and lead time move with configuration, so both come in writing with the quote.

Melasma: treat it carefully, or leave it alone

Melasma is not a spot. It's a chronic, relapsing condition with hormonal and light-driven components, and it humbles clinics that treat it like a lentigo. The American Academy of Dermatology is blunt on timing: with a proper plan it usually takes 3 to 12 months to see results, and melasma can last for years.

A 2022 systematic review in Medicina on low-fluence Q-switched Nd:YAG found recurrence reported from roughly 8% to 81% at three months, and flagged mottled hypopigmentation, near 10% in East Asian series. It rarely clears on its own.

Our device manuals lean the same way: 1064nm, a spot no smaller than 6mm, 200mJ to start, weekly passes over 10 to 15 sessions, and a stop signal when the area turns lightly red and the pigment looks scattered. Push on to bleeding or whitening and the manual warns of serious pigmentation. Sell into a melasma-led clinic only if they grasp they're managing a condition, not erasing a mark. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation risk climbs with phototype, and daily photoprotection is part of the protocol.

Protocol, aftercare and the diagnosis-first rule

Every treatment opens with test shots. Our manuals call for 3 to 5 pulses at low energy, then you read the tissue and climb. Never start at the number that suited the last client.

Spacing follows the lesion, not your booking software. For nevus of Ota our manuals specify 1064nm, a spot of at least 3mm, 400mJ to start, intervals near 60 to 90 days and 6 to 8 sessions. Fading shows about four weeks after a pass.

Ink colour deserves a warning. Our archive matches green ink to 694nm ruby and 755nm alexandrite rather than Nd:YAG, and flags a hazard: inks containing iron or titanium dioxide can turn grey-black under laser light. A 2013 review in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology reports the same paradoxical darkening in white and pink ink. Test a patch, especially over cosmetic tattoo.

Daily broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher, plus shade and a hat, per the AAD.
Keep the area dry for 2 to 3 days, and let scabs separate on their own.
Screen out pacemakers and implanted defibrillators, pregnancy, keloid tendency, active herpes, broken skin or malignant lesions in the field, and poorly controlled diabetes or epilepsy.

Then the rule that outranks all of it. Any lesion that is asymmetric, irregularly bordered, mixed in colour, changing or bleeding goes to a dermatologist first. Lasering a melanoma destroys tissue a pathologist needs. Biopsy when in doubt. This page is educational material for equipment buyers, not medical advice.

Questions buyers actually ask

How many sessions should we quote a tattoo client?

Quote a course, never a count. Depth, ink density, colour, body site and the client's own clearance rate all move the number, and amateur tattoos give way faster than professional ones. The AAD is clear that a laser cannot safely break down every layer in one session. Nobody can promise a trace-free result, so say so at the consultation.

Can we treat Fitzpatrick V and VI?

At 1064nm, yes, across types I to VI for many indications, the range given in the table above. Above type IV the caveats are not optional: test patch first, conservative fluence, longer intervals, rigorous photoprotection. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation never stops being the risk. 532nm stays with types I to III.

Who should be operating the machine?

Our manuals state that treatment should be carried out by a trained professional: a dermatologist, physician or certified operator, with protective eyewear on both patient and operator. Local rules on who may fire a medical laser are yours to check. Q-switched output is hazardous to the retina.

Next step, whichever hat you're wearing. Clinic owners, request a configuration quote and a live demo for the QE-01 or MF-05, naming the indications you treat most. Distributors, ask the same address for the distributor pack: territory terms, the dated certificate file, training and spare-parts schedule.

Evidence & further reading

Educational material for equipment selection and operator training. It is not medical advice, a treatment protocol or a promise of clinical outcome.

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