PicoWay Colors: Black 6 to 10, Green 12 to 18
PicoWay's four wavelengths handle black and red ink well, but green, blue, yellow, and white are a different story. Here's an honest breakdown, color by color.
Here is the short answer first: with PicoWay, ink color decides your session count far more than the size of your tattoo does. Black and gray clear fastest. Blue and green take the longest. Yellow and white may never lift completely.
This guide goes color by color: which wavelength each pigment answers to, how many sessions each tends to need, why the hard colors are hard, and what to do when a tattoo stops fading. The ranges below are tendencies from real sessions, not quotes, and individual results vary.
Which Ink Colors Clear Fastest, and Which Fight Back
If you read one part of this article, make it the table below. It answers the question most people actually arrive with: can PicoWay handle every color in my tattoo, and how long will each one take?
| Ink color | Wavelength used | Removal difficulty | Typical sessions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black / gray | 1064nm | Low | 6 to 10 |
| Red / orange | 532nm | Moderate | 8 to 12 |
| Blue / navy | 730nm | Moderate to high | 10 to 15 |
| Green | 785nm | High | 12 to 18 |
| Yellow / white | Limited options | Very high | Often incomplete |
Read those numbers as tendencies, not quotes. They reflect what tends to happen across real sessions rather than a best case, and your own count still depends on the size of the piece, how densely the ink was packed, and which shades sit together.
- Black and gray: the easy case. One wavelength does the work and change shows up early.
- Red and orange: a different wavelength and a slower curve, but a realistic finish.
- Blue, navy and green: double-digit sessions, planned in seasons rather than weeks.
- Yellow and white: very little for the laser to grab, so a faint trace often stays.
A multicolor tattoo is not the sum of those rows. Your provider switches wavelengths inside one appointment to address each shade, so the visit runs longer and the course is set by your slowest color. A black outline filled with green finishes on green's schedule.
Why Wavelength, Not Effort, Sets the Pace
Tattoo ink sits deep in the dermis, well below the surface layer of skin. That is part of why it is so stubborn: anything reaching it travels through healthy skin and still has to arrive with enough energy left to affect the pigment.
PicoWay is a picosecond platform, delivering that energy in trillionths of a second rather than the billionths-of-a-second pulses older nanosecond lasers use. Faster pulses shatter pigment into much finer, dust-like fragments, and your immune system's cleanup cells carry smaller pieces away more efficiently.
Nanosecond lasers still work, especially on simple black ink, but they leave larger fragments behind. That is where colored tattoos get frustrating: a device that handles one wavelength well struggles the moment a tattoo holds more than one shade.
The other half of the explanation is color itself. Every pigment absorbs light differently. A wavelength a pigment absorbs hands its energy over; one it mostly reflects passes by, and the ink stays where it is. PicoWay covers that range with four wavelengths.
| Wavelength | Best absorbed by | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| 1064nm | Black and gray ink | The easiest colors, quickest to show change |
| 532nm | Red and orange pigment | A steady middle path, a few rounds behind black |
| 730nm | Blue and navy ink | The harder end, planned in double-digit sessions |
| 785nm | Green ink | The most demanding color that still responds |
Your provider switches between these wavelengths within a single session based on what is in your tattoo. That is why a multicolor piece takes longer per visit than a plain black design: it is several treatments layered into one appointment.
Yellow and white are the outliers, and it is the same principle read backwards. Neither absorbs any of the four wavelengths well, so the laser has very little to grab onto. If the pigment does not take up the energy, more energy is not the answer.
Color by Color: What Each Shade Realistically Does
This is where the principle turns into a plan. Each color behaves differently enough to be worth reading on its own, so start with the ones actually in your tattoo.
Black and gray. Treated at 1064nm and often close to done within six to ten visits, because black absorbs that wavelength efficiently. Change shows up early and progress is predictable round to round. A plain black line piece is the shortest path on offer.
Red and orange. Treated at 532nm, generally eight to twelve sessions. Red sits in the moderate band: it responds well enough that a realistic finish is a fair expectation, but it runs a few rounds behind black. Orange follows the same wavelength and pace.
Blue and navy. Treated at 730nm, generally ten to fifteen sessions, where the timeline gets counted in months rather than appointments. This is where people expecting a black-ink pace lose patience. Blue does fade. It fades gradually.
Green. The most demanding color that still responds reliably, treated at 785nm and typically needing twelve to eighteen sessions. Green is why a small leaf motif can outlast a much larger black piece. Plan for a year or more of spaced-out sessions.
Yellow and white. The honest exception. Neither absorbs the available wavelengths well, so options are limited and results are often incomplete. A light shadow of yellow or white ink frequently stays put no matter how many sessions you book.
Then there is the case most people actually have: several of these at once. A multicolor tattoo takes longer than a single-color one, not only because there is more ink, but because each shade has to be addressed on its own terms in the same visit.
| What is in your tattoo | What drives the timeline | What to plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Black or gray only | One wavelength, steady change | The shortest, most predictable course |
| Black with red or orange | Two wavelengths per visit | Longer appointments, moderate total |
| Anything with blue or green | The hard end sets the pace | Double-digit sessions, likely a year |
| Anything with yellow or white | Pigment that absorbs little | A fade rather than a clean finish |
Notice what is missing from that table: size. A large black piece can finish ahead of a small one with green in it, because difficulty depends almost entirely on ink color. That is the first thing to raise at a consultation, before any talk of price.
Spacing, the Session Timeline and What Progress Looks Like
Sessions are typically spaced six to eight weeks apart, and that gap is doing real work. Between appointments your skin clears away the fragmented ink and heals. The laser breaks the pigment up; your body is what carries it away.
Booking closer together does not speed that up. It mostly adds irritation without adding progress, because the next round lands before the last has finished being processed. If you are compressing a course into a short window, this constraint does not bend.
| When | What is normal to see | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| The first day or two | Redness and slight swelling, like a mild sunburn | The expected reaction, settling on its own |
| One to two weeks after | Ink may look frosted or slightly raised | The area is working through the treated pigment |
| Between sessions | The color goes about a shade lighter | Progress is cumulative, not dramatic |
| Six to ten visits | Black and gray are often close to done | The realistic finish line for black work |
| A year or more | Green or blue reaches a comparable fade | Why hard colors get planned in seasons |
That middle row is worth internalizing. Fading happens a shade at a time, and on darker or multicolor ink it is more gradual still, so the change between two sessions can be hard to see even when the change across six is obvious.
- Photograph the tattoo in the same light before every session. Memory compresses gradual change into a plateau.
- Judge the course on the trend across several rounds, not the fortnight after any single one.
- Ask for a firm estimate only after someone has seen the tattoo. Size, ink density and color mix all move the number.
The appointment itself is shorter than people expect. For a hand-sized tattoo, plan on roughly ten to twenty minutes of laser time; with numbing beforehand, the visit runs close to an hour. Most people describe the sensation as a rubber band snapping against the skin, and topical numbing cream takes the edge off.
When Ink Stalls, and What Else Shapes Your Result
When a tattoo seems to stop changing, the useful question is which of several things is happening. If what remains is yellow or white, the laser has little to work with. If it is green or blue, a slow stretch around session ten is not a failure — it is the middle of a course that was always going to run into double digits.
Skin tone shapes the plan too. Pigment changes, meaning temporary lighter or darker patches around the treated area, are a real possibility, and that risk runs higher for deeper skin tones. Providers commonly respond with lower energy settings and more, gentler sessions, which trades speed for safety.
- Redness and mild swelling: common right after treatment, usually settling within a few days.
- Blistering or crusting: can happen after early sessions, and should be left alone to heal.
- Pigment changes: temporary lighter or darker patches, higher risk for deeper skin tones.
- Scarring: uncommon with a properly calibrated picosecond laser, but not impossible if aftercare is skipped.
Some things sit outside normal healing. Spreading redness, worsening pain, or a fever after a session are reasons to contact your provider right away or seek urgent care. A few situations also call for a conversation before you start at all:
- Pregnancy, worth raising at consultation rather than mid-course.
- A personal or family history of keloid scarring, which your provider will factor into the plan.
- Any photosensitizing medication you take, so the approach can be adjusted before session one.
Aftercare then matters as much as the session: keep the area away from prolonged water exposure for about a week, and be strict about sun protection, since unprotected sun on freshly treated skin raises the odds of pigment changes.
If you are treated while travelling, plan around the gap that creates. Sessions sit six to eight weeks apart, so a full course rarely fits inside one trip, and a delayed reaction after you fly home may need a local provider who does not have your records. Ask for your session dates and settings in writing before you leave.
Cost is the least satisfying answer, and anyone quoting a firm number before seeing your tattoo is guessing. Pricing depends on size, how many colors are involved, and how many sessions your ink needs — which brings it back to color again. Current pricing and any active offers are listed at /en/promotion.
- Which colors are in this tattoo, and which wavelength does each need?
- Based on those colors, what session range would you estimate, and what would change it?
- What is realistic for the yellow or white areas, if there are any?
- How will settings be adjusted for my skin tone, and what does that do to the timeline?
Good candidates understand this is a gradual process spread across months. Mostly black or dark ink means a shorter, more predictable path; a design leaning on green, yellow or white calls for realistic expectations. Skin tone, location and how the ink was applied all factor in, which is why an in-person look beats anything you read online.
Beautystone is a skin clinic in the Hapjeong neighborhood of Seoul, and the above is general information rather than an assessment of your own skin. Individual results vary. A qualified provider who has seen your tattoo can tell you, color by color, what it is realistically working with.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can PicoWay remove every color in a tattoo?
Not equally, and that is the honest answer. Black and gray respond fastest, red and orange fall in the middle, blue and green take considerably longer, and yellow or white may never fully disappear. For a multicolor piece, a realistic goal is a strong fade on the responsive shades and a lighter trace where the pigment absorbs little.
Why does green ink take so many more sessions?
Green sits at the hard end of the spectrum. It is treated at 785nm and typically needs twelve to eighteen sessions, against six to ten for black. Every pigment absorbs light differently, so each round moves green a smaller step. Slow fading there is expected, and rushing the schedule will not change the arithmetic.
How many sessions will a multicolor tattoo need?
It depends which colors are involved, and the slowest sets the pace. Your provider has to switch wavelengths for each shade, so multicolor tattoos generally need more total sessions than a single-color design, sometimes stretching past a year of spaced-out visits. Find your hardest color in the table above and plan around that row.
Can I book sessions closer together to finish faster?
No, and it usually backfires. Sessions are spaced six to eight weeks apart because your skin needs that time to clear the fragmented ink and heal before the next round. Booking closer mostly adds irritation without progress. If you are travelling for treatment, plan one session per trip, or start where you can keep the interval.
