Laser shock peening coating with entrapped confinement medium

An integrated laser shock peening coating (57) for laser shock peening a surface of an object includes an ablative medium layer (64) spaced apart from a clear containment layer (66) and a clear liquid confining medium (68) therebetween wherein the clear containment layer and the clear liquid medium are transparent to a laser beam used for laser shock peening. Two examples of the clear liquid confining medium (68) are water and a mixture of water and agar without flowing a confinement curtain of fluid over the surface upon which the laser beam is firing. The integrated laser shock peening coating (57) may be a tape (59) with an adhesive layer (60) being disposed on a first side (71) of the ablative medium layer (64). A method of laser shock peening includes coating a substrate (10) of the article (12) with the integrated laser shock peening coating (57) and firing a laser beam on the coated substrate (10) with sufficient power to form a region having deep compressive residual stresses extending into the substrate (10).