The newest addition to the tattoo-removal world are picosecond-domain lasers, often called picosecond lasers.

These lasers are typically Nd:YAG or alexandrite lasers, and have even shorter pulse-durations than the Q-switched, nanosecond-domain lasers.

The biggest advantage seen so far of the picosecond lasers is the ability to remove yellow pigment, something that was extremely difficult or impossible to do before the picosecond lasers; and the ability to remove blue, green and purple pigments much more effectively.

Older-generation alexandrite lasers had pulse-durations typically in the 50-100 nanosecond range. This was a little longer than us laser surgeons would have liked, so the new picosecond lasers, with pulses less than 1 nanosecond are much more effective at removing the difficult-to-treat colors of blue, green, and purple. As for black inks, the older-generation lasers had pulse-durations in the 5-10 nanosecond range, so the advantages of current technologies (possibly faster clearance or better removal of faint tattoos need to be researched further).