Questions clinics ask about Alma devices
Answers for Australian and New Zealand clinic owners and practitioners: running costs and consumables, payback, genuine versus lookalike devices, darker and tanned skin, training, service, comfort and downtime. Filter by treatment, platform or technology, or ask your Alma representative.
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Tattoo Removal
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For most Australian clinics a Q-switched nanosecond laser does the job, and the honest answer depends on what you will actually treat. Picosecond lasers deliver pulses roughly a hundred times shorter, which fragments ink and pigment more finely with less heat in the surrounding tissue. That is a genuine advantage on stubborn residual tattoos, some green and blue inks, and on patients where thermal side effects are the main worry. It also comes at a materially higher purchase price and, on most platforms, as a single-purpose device.
Q-switched Nd:YAG at 1064nm and 532nm remains the workhorse for black and dark inks, red and orange inks, sun spots, freckling and dermal pigment, which between them are the large majority of cases that walk into a clinic. On Alma Harmony that is the ClearLift Pro applicator, one module on a platform that also runs vascular, acne, IPL, non-ablative and ablative treatments. The practical decision is volume: a clinic doing a few tattoos a week alongside skin work is better served by a platform with a Q-switched applicator than by a dedicated pico machine that sits idle between tattoo appointments.
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It depends on whether you buy a single-purpose machine or a platform. Tattoo removal is a repeat-visit treatment, usually six to twelve sessions per patient, so it produces predictable rebooking. On Alma Harmony the Q-switched applicator is one module on a platform that also treats pigmented lesions, vascular lesions, acne, scars and skin rejuvenation, so the same capital serves several revenue lines instead of one. Ask an Alma representative for a payback model built on your own patient numbers. Finance is available through Medfin.
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Five things separate profitable tattoo removal from complaint-heavy tattoo removal in a small clinic.
- Photograph and consent every tattoo before the first pass, including ink colours, age of the tattoo and any previous removal attempts.
- Test patch first on a small area and review at 24 to 48 hours, particularly on Fitzpatrick IV to VI.
- Space sessions six to eight weeks apart so the immune system has time to clear the fragmented ink. Treating sooner does not speed up clearance.
- Quote a course, never a single session. Most tattoos need six to twelve passes and patients who expect one will be disappointed.
- Book removal into quiet clinic hours. Sessions are short, so tattoo work fills gaps between longer skin appointments.
Alma Lasers Australia trains your team on protocol selection and endpoint recognition at installation.
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Alma removes tattoos with a Q-switched Nd:YAG applicator, ClearLift Pro on the Alma Harmony platform. It fires nanosecond pulses that are absorbed by the ink particles far faster than the surrounding skin can heat, so the ink shatters into fragments small enough for the body to clear over the following weeks. Two wavelengths, 1064nm and 532nm, let one applicator treat dark inks and red or orange inks.
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Yes. Q-switched Nd:YAG at 1064 nm and 532 nm has the longest evidence base of any tattoo removal technology, with published studies going back more than twenty years on black, blue and red inks. Alma’s Q-switched applicators on the Harmony platform apply that wavelength pair, and Harmony is included in the ARTG. The evidence is also clear about limits: green and light blue inks respond less to Nd:YAG, results take a course of sessions spaced weeks apart, and skin type governs settings. Alma Lasers Australia’s training covers all three so clinics quote patients accurately.
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Yes.
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Alma’s solutions for tattoo removal use a Q-Switch Nd:YAG laser, with optional filters for different wavelengths that treat specific-colored tattoos.