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Dangerous tattoo remover from eBay is a MILLION watt laser

Name: Dangerous tattoo remover from eBay is a MILLION watt laser
Description: Styropyro tests an eBay laser tattoo removal device and finds it is a roughly million-watt pulsed laser, powerful enough to ignite air in the beam. He had bought it hoping to salvage an Nd:YAG laser cavity.

styropyro Demos

Open on YouTube First HN thread

1 HN user recommended this demo in 1 different month between 2020 and 2022.

2007–2026

1 recommendation 1 citation 1 critical 1 joke HackerTube score 1

HN mostly cites it as an example of the absurdly powerful lasers sold cheaply online, and a nod to the channel's DIY laser builds.

Styropyro tests an eBay laser tattoo removal device and finds it is a roughly million-watt pulsed laser, powerful enough to ignite air in the beam. He had bought it hoping to salvage an Nd:YAG laser cavity.

Pull quote: “builds insanely strong lasers with basically salvaged junk electronics.” (HN, 2022)

Also tagged: high-power lasers, lasers, nd:yag, tattoo removal, electronics, laser safety

What Hacker News said

4 labeled comments from the HN archive; up to 20 are kept per video, favoring different commenters. Each one links back to the original thread.

Recommends adamsmith143 September 2022 under Neutralisation of cockroaches with laser automated by machine vision

Builds extremely strong lasers from salvaged electronics

You've obviously never heard of styropyro who builds insanely strong lasers with basically salvaged junk electronics. [this video]

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Citations, criticism and jokes

Cites it darken February 2020 under Tip: Don't record laser tattoo removal (2019)

Cheap tattoo removal laser kit demonstrated

Tattoo removal tends to use ~1MW pulsed lasers (yes, megawatt). The pulse is extremely short (nanoseconds), but at that power/instant-brightness it's enough to fry sensitive imaging electronics. Can also do fun things like blast holes through CDs. I'd learned about the topic the other day here ("plays" with a cheap tattoo removal kit off the web): [this video]

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Pushes back ben_w February 2020 under Lasersaur – open-source laser cutter

More worryingly, it’s possible to buy pre-built laser etchers online that don’t come with safety glass: [link] And Q-switched pulse lasers for hair removal (i.e. to be aimed at your face) whose included safety goggles are more than a little suspicious: [this video]

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Makes a joke scottlocklin January 2020 under Particle accelerator fits on the head of a pin

Dunno man you can buy some really wack lasers off of ebay: [this video] They were talking about this kind of particle accelerator in the 90s back when I used to hang out with accelerator physicists. Though back then it was going to be terahertz waves rather than lasers. Still got to power it with something. IMO best mad scientist weapon is something like this: [link]

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