Large/dark/dense Tattoo Removal - Guilford, CT

The company my artist used for his ink was Starbrite which is made in my state. All of there ink is vegan friendly. My black used was made of almost all carbon which is not the norm for blacks. I guess many blacks have heavy metals in them but carbon is water solluable and I wad even able to pull up the MSDS fact sheet of my ink used. Well, my laser tech checked up my ink with his source in NY and they told him that vegan friendly ink will probably be removed in 4 to 5 sessions. The progress is amazing! The vegan ink responded much better then my other tatt that is three years old and done with regular ink. If I were to guess it was either the vegan ink or the fact that the tatt was only two months old and did not get deep in the skin yet. It is so confusing...some people say old tatts remove faster and some say it is hardet because some ink naturally absorbed deepet into the skin over time. Anyways, yes the vegan carbon based black faded about 60% in just one treatment. The forearm looks about 30% but pretty blistered up on the forearm so I can`t tell right now. The upper arm only had a few blisters and significant fading. I hope that helps. I am sorry I did not post the pics and the great results but I just can not bring myself to go public with them yet.

I did not plan on organic but my artist is a friend and when I told him my situation he informed me of the ink used. While checking it up, I noticed it was organic and vegan friendly which helped a lot. I will be taking more pictures shortly when my arm heals. Right now I am blister central on my forearm but barely any blisters on the upper arm. Instead, much ink gone and amazing results. I will keep you updated and hopefully post my pictures soon....when my confidence returns.

Blisters are not too paimful and the overall pain is not so bad but I look like popeye with fat, fluid filled forearms...they are pretty swollen. I have been in contact with the physocian via email throughout the weekend and they been checking on me every day...amazing support! They assure me this is very typical and keep icing it. They even offered to pop the blisters this week. Gross but great. I am happy to have chosen this place and feel pretty comfortable given the situation. Thanks for checking in

Thanks Eva, will do. My swelling went down and all blisters poppes. I think I am recovering well. Stay in touch and thanks for the advice.

Good story Rachel and thanks for the input. You are correct, not too much support. I go to a physician and he can not prescribe any pain meds so I got to tough it out. I really hope it gets less painful with less ink. I am glad I found this site and the support on this site...like yourself. It helps get me through this. I am glad you have a lot less ink then I do and as your sessions wrap up I am sure I will be right in the middle of mine. Do you have your own reviews? I would love to follow it. Please keep in touch, nice to meet you.

I just found this forum a couple of days ago - haven't posted anything on my own experience yet, just a question for the docs, which hasn't been answered so far anyway. The doc did say he felt my experience with pain was unusual, he had never seen it that bad - but a tech told me that everyone does experience pain and discomfort. Mine was just terrible - honestly, it ended up causing a panic attack, then the doc refused to treat me unless I got on some kind of "treatment", and said if it happened again, he wouldn't treat me at all. Which of course, made me feel more panicked - with a half lasered tattoo!. He doesn't have good bedside manner at all, which made the treatments that much worse for me - I'm usually not squeamish about much, but I think it was just the terrible time in life, no support, the pain - emotions associated with the tattoo and removal - all if it. So I ended up having to go to a different doctor who recommended a pill just for before the treatments to calm anxiety. That got me through, but man, it was hard. Oh, he also said he would only laser one tattoo at a time after that, also - which helped with less pain to deal with in each session - but I would go two different nights a week. Even that sterile environment was freaking me out - the tattoo artists were so much friendlier than the staff clinic. I may consider finding someone else when I have the money to return to sessions - right now most of my ink is gone, but I've got hyper and hypopigmentation so they just look like large burns, hoping that will be faded in time. I truly hope that no one else has that kind of problem and that mine was an unusual case. I started in 2009, and was pretty much going every 2 months, sometimes spaced a little longer than that, but my last session was about a year ago - so I went consistently for 3 years, now giving my body, mind, and wallet a break. It has faded enough that I think I could get cover ups if I wanted instead....but not sure what I want to do yet. Tempting, as tats are so much easier and cheaper. But it's odd - I love them on other people, but for me - I'm normally quite private. So - they can be super meaningful and beautiful - and yet I realized I don't want even a teeny bit peeking out through my clothes, ever, for most other people to ever see, wonder about, or ask about. So perhaps tattoos are really not the best for me - at least not the sizes and positions I had gotten them. I had thought they would be totally hidden, but turned out just the very edges would peek out sometimes. There were other reasons for the removals, too - but I guess that's why I might not get coverups. Okay, done rambling! This forum seems good for emotional support, actually, I may get more active here, particularly when I go back, but that probably won't be for several months at least. Even reading about other people's experiences is helping me a lot, so thank you for posting. Also nice to see I'm not unusual in having this process take a few years! I was letting that discourage me. But I do think mine take longer because I have darker skin - medium brown. I have heard with lighter skin and black ink, that's the easiest combo to remove more rapidly. I think it's super brave of you to get that amount of ink off!

I hear you...The treatment was extremely painful and I hope that pain dies down as less ink remains but we will see. I heard that hyper and hypopigmentation is usally temporary and takes up to two years to go away. Impressive dedication and I admire your journey. Seems like you are pretty happy with your results and I do hope I stay dedicated and see results like you. Please keep me posted and thanks for your input and support...it helps me A LOT. I am sure you kmow all about how hard the first couple sessions are.

I found this clinic that will do all my ink in both arms for $600 a session but the session will be broken up into two possibly three sections. Thanks for your advice...I think this is a reasonable deal.

I just started yesterday and due to density in my tattoo the treatment hurt extremely bad. Does the treatment get less painful due to less ink? I know they crank the power every session but the pain was insane and I can only imagine the density and ink hit was a large amount

Yep it does get less painful once the ink breaks up, however if you have thick black ink it does take a long time to break up BUT it will just stick with it.