Laser therapy of lichenoid red tattoo reaction

Erbium:Yag laser therapy of lichenoid red tattoo reaction

“…treated the red areas with a Q‐switched Nd:Yag laser at a wavelength of 532 nm, and the rest of the tattoo with the same laser at 1064 nm. Following three selective treatments of the red areas there was no subsequent inflammation and the patient remained asymptomatic 6 . Both of these groups have therefore carried out selective removal of inflammatory lesions related to the red pigment while retaining the original tattoo design.…”

Red tattoo reactions

“…No consistently effective treatment for tattoo reactions has been reported, although in individual cases the CO 2 laser, 11 and Q‐switched Nd:YAG laser, 12 have been successful therapies. In most reported cases potent fluorinated topical steroids and intralesional steroids have not resulted in improvement, although in our first case significant improvement was seen.…”

Q-switch laser and tattoo pigments: First results of the chemical and photophysical analysis of 41 compounds

“…Generally, the pigments used for tattooing are well tolerated by the skin. Nevertheless, adverse reactions have been published in the literature, for instance allergic reactions [5][6][7][8][9][10], pseudolymphomas [11][12][13], systemic sarcoidosis [14,15], and granulomatous or lichenoid reactions [16,17]. In addition, several malignant lesions have occurred in tattoos (possibly coincidental), including basal cell carcinomas [18], squamous cell carcinomas [19], and malignant melanomas [20,21].…”