Question for scar5

[wylie]

Since you seem to know more about SMP than any of the practitioners who post their results here, what are your thoughts on permanent SMP for scar repair? I'd especially like to know your thoughts on the viability of the ink used to not fade and change blue over time.

 

Is it feasible in your opinion to expect a brown ink to not change colors over time? I would never attempt the use of permanent SMP anywhere other than scar tissue that is covered by hair, the risks are just too great for me.

[scar5]

Wylie,

 

Thanks for your comments. I don't know much about SMP simply because as a consumer, most of us are not privy to the details due to the bluff of the SMP 'artists', their employers, the ink suppliers and the cosmetic ink industry in general, who are protecting their interests (Good on them, they wanna make a buck etc., bad luck for the vain victims or strip procedures wanting to cover their scars !!)

 

But as for your question, you raise a very important one, and as usual, the SMP folks are doing their best to avoid telling us a definitive answer. When asked about color with the SOLE PURPOSE of establishing whether or not color is used or black is used (diluted) we are usually given vague nonsense like 'we use tones to match the hair color. I hope that helps. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask" ha...what a joke!! If it weren't for so frustrating.

 

So here is the deal as far as I can tell.

 

1) Permanent SMP is usually black. It is monochrome. It is diluted with a 'carrier' to be lighter or darker. I have seen some SMP inks advertised as browns, but I am yet to find any permanent SMP operators of the kind that have reps on these boards using brown. HIS clinic rep says they sometimes use brown, but usually their customers suit a black. (what a co-incidence) But the SMP reps will be evasive when asked about this. They don't wanna get the tag, that they use just black for various reasons.

2) Temporary SMP uses colors. I base this on the SMP I have seen, and on a comment by Jotronic (a regular and long time rep for Hasson and Wong and whilst clearly biased by his business interests is someone I would trust in matters like this.) He said Milena uses no black. The caveat is of course s that it might have changed.

3) Brown tattoo ink is infamous, according to my research, for being unstable as a color and thus, you see very, very few brown tattoos. Temporary can get away with it because it is only superficial, and thus shed before the brown turns blue.

4) You could choose brown, and if it goes blue you could laser it out, however brown tattoo ink may contain colors that do not respond to Q-switch lasers. In some cases, white colors, when hit with laser, actually turn black, according to what I've been told. (But once again, I do NOT trust ink people in general to tell me the truth about anything so beware). Black on the otherhand, can be lasered off. In my case, I have successfully lasered off black, some of which turned blue, but there was shock loss to my hair, that lasted three months. The hair regrew.

5) If your hair is brown, you may still benefit from black SMP. The key to avoiding blue might be depth. The deeper you go, the more light gets through and bounces between the particles of ink. The red light is filtered out leaving more blue, so don't get in too deep and use a light tone. SMP operators can adjust the tone of the black. At certain light and angles, it might look a shade dark, at others a shade light.

6)SMP has helped me immensely, so I won't bag teh industry too much, but as a consumer it is just hard going trying establish the facts.

Good Luck.

[wylie]

As expected, a thorough, detailed, and most informative reply, and I very much appreciate it.

 

If someone could lighten up black ink enough to blend in well with brown hair, and I could trust the operator to go around 1mm in depth with the application, I might give permanent SMP a try on my numerous strip scars. I have done temporary SMP on them and the efficacy of this has been somewhat limited, and the application process is three phase (a few weeks in between procedures), meaning three round trips of driving is necessary.

 

I am excited about having this done during the next phase on something other than scar tissue, and first two sessions are done back to back, with a third touch up as needed. And I expect I to see a much greater effect when done on something other than scar tissue, but as far as the strip scars are concerned, don't know of anyone I can trust to use permanent ink that won't turn blue on scarring.

 

If you know anyone reputable in the industry in the U.S. you can shoot me a PM if you don't mind doing so.

 

Thanks again for your answers, you're a huge source of information on the topic.