Tattoo Removal: Stories

After several years of wanting to remove my 2 tattoos that were reminders of a wild youth, I finally took the plunge last week the day before I turn 45 and started treatment.

I went in for my consultation during the middle of the work day and met with the nurse and then with the business manager (The Closer) After a short discussion she showed me my treatment plan and cost and offered the different option for payment. I chose to pay everything upfront in hopes I would not chicken out later, that gave me a big discount. This particular clinic has a scale they use to decide how many treatments they think it will take and then everything beyond that will be treated for free upto 1 year later.

That sound great to me...so out flew the credit card and thus we began our journey. I opted not to use any numbing creme because I needed to get back to work...HOT BACON GREASE SPLATTERS being shot from a pellet gun...that is my best description. I have a large shoulder tattoo of King Trident and a small hip tat of James Dean's autograph...don't ask.
I was leaving the next day for a weekend birthday getaway so I think she went lighter on the laser... I did not blister at all.... I felt a bit soar like a sun burn...and all seemed well.. I went on my trip with no problem...I opted for wearing a surf sun shirt all day by the pool for protection and stayed out of the water until the 3rd day. As I am writing this blog, I just realized I got in the pool which I was not planning on doing at all, and I am 16 years sober...so not quite sure how I missed that.

None the less~ I made it home and life was good until day 4 the itching begin, which is what brought to search out this site. The itching has been horrible for 4 days... the only thing that helps is ice... when I am home the ice is on...( and off of course ). I have been waking up in the night scratching my back and honestly thought today that I would ask about getting a refund for the rest of the treatment because this seems unbearable. But alas I took a Zyrtec today and it reduced the itch about 25% .... so I may make it ..
The result thus far faded some small lines...and seems to make some of the others seems brighter, which I read could happen. I am scheduled for about 7weeks apart for treatment so August 30th is the next one, it will be afterwork with numbing creme.
I am actually so nervous of what this will look like in the end.. but then I see someone who is completely faded and I get excited to think someday that could be me.

The itch was better last night...only woke up once at 4am and 1 of the tattoos had about 20 minutes of itching then it went away. So far not bad today and it is exactly 8 days since my first treament. I hope I am over the itch hump.
I looked at it closely last night before going to bed and it looks like some of the small lines are already beginning to fade away... that made me happy but there is a long way to go. My tats are 22 years old...so hopefully that will help speed the process.
Will keep you posted.

6 weeks later.....there has been minimal fading after 1st treatment to a few areas. The itching has finally stopped at the end of 4 weeks. I just moved my next treatment out to the 8 week mark so that I will not have a fresh laser burn over Labor Day weekend. I have already asked myself why I am bothering to go forward with this process since my tattoos do not show unless I have my shirt off. I guess that is why I prepaid for all of my treatment so I would not back out. I think I will be glad in the end..... But I cannot imagine how LONG this process is going to be. I will post more after my next treatment, which is scheduled for

Today is going to be my 2nd treatment ...getting mentally prepared for the next few weeks of itching and healing..... hoping it is better this second time around.... I will post later how it goes... I am attaching 2 photos as it looks today 8 weeks atfer first treatment.

I had my 2nd treatment 6 days ago...I went early this time for the numbing creme and sat for the 30 minutes waiting for it's effects....Which sadly never came. The nurse said some people say that it helps, but I truly did not feel a difference. The laser still hurts pretty bad but because it is fast, the entire treatment maybe takes 1 minute, it is bearable.
I treated to aftercare very different this time. I iced the area post treatment from Friday night through Monday....off and on.... and even still some on tuesday.
I asked the nurse if I could use a higher concentrate cortisone creme that I was prescribed by my dermatologist for another rash and she said yes.
So I have been using the creme and then also using real Aloe Vera plant gel from my back yard. One of these things, the ice, creme, or plant or a combination of the all has made to itching negligible.
I have taken Benadryl at night the past three nights to make sure I stayed on top of it and did not have a flare up. I actually have forgotten completely about the treatment sights for hours at work. So this time is SSOOO much better.
The tech said we would start with a different laser at my next visit to address the blue colors in my tattoo. No one sounds to promising about removing that color...but we will see. I am still all in at this time and laugh thinking, I have 2 treatments down and only 11 more to go. :-)

It has been 5 weeks and 3 days since my 2nd treatment. I must say, I have not thought a lot about my tattoo this go round. I iced it so much for the first 4 days after treatment and had a much better result. The itching was minimal this time and I feel good about moving forward with the next treatment in 11 days. My James Dean tattoo is fading quickly, the King Trident has faded some also but she has not worked on the colors yet which she will begin on my next visit. I will let you know how it goes. So far, I am happy with my decision. Also for a note, I have worn a swim shirt every time I have been in the sun since the day I started this treatment. My friends wonder what happened to the sun worshiper I used to be and I just simple say this is something I really want to get done and the sun will slow it down.

Just finished 3rd treatment on 2 tattoos. It was the best treatment as far as discomfort goes that I have had. I actually applied numbing creme to the site 2 hours before treatment time and this really seemed to help. Also my technician turned down the frequency in how fast the laser would pulse each time, from 10 megahertz to 5 megahertz I believe. This gave a few seconds in between each pop that really seemed to help also. Ultimately, I am not sure if it was the numbing creme application or the pulse reduction that made this feel so much better or the combination of the two, but either way I am sticking to this new winning combination. I was able to talk and have a normal conversation with my nurse while she preformed the procedure.
After care again was lots of icing, Aloe and cortisone...last night it had been 4 nights since the treatment and I did take Benadryl to ward off itching, so far so good!
Feeling good about the process and really feel like we are making headway. I will post some shots in a few weeks as the ink begins to fade.

Here are the pics of a side by side from Before treatment to now, which is 5 weeks after my 6th treatment. The have only only done the color specific laser 2 times now. Although it does make me have to wait 3 months before I can go back, it also makes great improvements. The technician says we will use the color specific laser every other time now.
I am very encouraged by the results. My after care immediately following treatment is to use a cutting from my aloe plant and just keep layering the gel. I put it in the fridge so it feels really good. It seemed to help with blisters this time also. No itching with the use of a cortisone cream and aloe and lots of ice. I go back for treatment 7 on June 30th, that will be 1 year since I started my treatment.

These are photos from after session 4 color specific laser. It was my worst treatment as far as blisters go. I did not know that I was having the color specific laser and scheduled the treatment on a friday night and had to work all day the next day. I think by not being able to ice and aloe all day it made it worse. But the results were good in the end.

These are photos from after session 4 color specific laser. It was my worst treatment as far as blisters go. I did not know that I was having the color specific laser and scheduled the treatment on a friday night and had to work all day the next day. I think by not being able to ice and aloe all day it made it worse. But the results were good in the end.