How old does a scar have to be, for medical tattooing?
I always recommend 12 months as the absolute minimum and some scars need to be 12 to 24 months old depending on that particular scar tissue.
This really depends on many factors, such as:
- how old you are,
- how fast your immune system works to be able to heal the scar,
- the amounts of collagen that you actually have in your skin (and this depends on your age)
- how the scar was managed at the time of healing
- for examle:
- whether you had any infection in the scar
- whether the sutures were pulled two tight puttingthe new tissue under tension
- whether you needed vacuum therapy to help heal the scar
- whether the scar reopened due to tension in movement
- whether you’ve had any previous treatments such as microneedling on the scar.
I would need to see the scar in person and assess for the capillary refill rate and make sure that the scar is fully healthy.
I would also need to see that the scar doesn’t have any pinkness at all, because the pinkness is all the littel capillaries making sure that oxygen is still getting to the area, that still needs healing. It’s only when these capillaries, retract, shrivel away and get broken down and taken away by the immune system that the scar is ready to treat with medical tattooing.
This is really important to remember, that if your scar is still pink, then your body still knows it needs the oxygen and still needs to heal underneath the surface of the skin. Therefore, we cannot go into that scar while it’s still pink, otherwise we are damaging brand new, baby skin or brand new scar tissue, that hasn’t fully healed and then you’ll be back to square one again, through the healing process!
So it’s better to wait an extra couple of months than have to go back 12 months and start healing process again.
If you’d like to speak with me about your scar and see if it’s ready for camouflageing then please email me at:
jo@jobregazzi.co.uk
or call me on 01743 246548
