Laser tattoo removal is your new anti-ageing weapon. Apparently.

Image via iStock.

Suddenly microdermabrasion and Botox are sounding a bit dated. Dr Harold Lancer, dermatologist to Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian, has pioneered a PicoWay laser for tattoo removal that doubles as an anti-ageing treatment.

Lancer describes his device as ‘the fastest firing laser on the market, firing at 1000 times faster than the formerly fastest laser available’. Sounds painful. However, Lancer says the PicoWay is ‘incredibly efficient at heating the skin’, which stimulates the skin’s repair mechanism and jumpstarts collagen production.

So really, it’s just prompting your skin to kick-start its own ability for self-repair via a few picosecond pulses of energy to the tissue delivered at a trillionth of a second per pulse. Obviously…

It’ll even create a cascade of healing enzyme repair mechanisms to help the body heal more quickly.

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The PicoWay was originally created to remove tattoos, but Lancer says you don’t need tatts to benefit from its ability to correct excess pigmentation, tone and brown spots. ‘This breakthrough technology also allows us to treat and improve the texture of skin without the damage of traditional ablative lasers,’ he says.

He’s used it on his celebrity clientele for the past red carpet awards season – that includes the likes of Nicole Richie, Scarlett Johansson, Michelle Williams and Ryan Seacrest.

‘Anyone in the public eye will prefer the PicoWay, obviously because of its effectiveness, but also the brief downtime and much less pain during and post treatment,’ Lancer says.

Check out some of our favourite anti-aging products (post continues after gallery).

We’re not sure what ‘much less pain’ means, but we can tell you that the PicoWay treatment isn’t available in Australia – yet. The technology has just been cleared in the US by the FDA so at this stage it’s only Bey and Kim who will be waking up, well, flawless.

Regardless, when the PicoWay does arrive on our shores, treatments will probably cost a pretty penny. Currently, Lancer’s services start at $USD1,500 a session. That’s enough to cause us a little discomfort, even if the device itself doesn’t. Appointments take approximately an hour and a half, and the downtime – which varies from person to person – involves two to three days of redness and careful avoidance of the sun.

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The laser trend has been growing in popularity since Dr Evil dreamt of ‘sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads’ in Austin Powers. Arguably, Kim Kardashian could be credited with starting it. She recently lamented to People magazine that she has ‘the hairiest forehead you could ever imagine… in high school, I would wax it off because there was just so much hair, and then I would laser it off a little bit.’ Ah, Kim K, always at the forefront of breaking beauty technology and invasive skincare routines.