Possibility of increasing the efficiency of laser-induced tattoo removal by optical skin clearing

The possibility of selective laser photothermolysis improvement for the removal of tattoo pigments due to the optical clearing of human skin is investigated. It is shown experimentally that the optical skin clearing increases the tattoo image contrast. Computer Monte Carlo simulations show that by decreasing the laser beam scattering in upper skin layers, it is possible to reduce the radiation power required for tattoo removal by 30% — 40% and, therefore, to increase the the photothermolysis efficiency.