Getting Lasered Tomorrow - Kelkheim, DE

Just had an 8th treatment with the Quanta last week. I took a LONNNNNNGGG break over summer. This proved VERY good for my tattoo and I had a lot of fading. Frankly I have to say that I believe the 8 week waiting period that all laser treatment centers recommend is certainly not enough. I think a 2-3 month (or more) waiting period will prove far more useful towards the end but of course we're all in a hurry. I'm going to test this by waiting 8 weeks between my last week treatment (8th txt) and the 9th treatment, just to see what I think. As soon as the redness goes down, I'll take another pic. Once again, I had FAR less pain and problems in after care with the Quanta than I did with the Picosure...not to mention lots of money saved. Also, the longer waiting period allowed my hypopigmentation to significantly reduce. What I have learned thru this whole process is that patience is what we all need. It will provide the best results, regardless of the laser.

Well I had another Quanta treatment at my new place. most of the hypopigmentation had cleared up (not all of it) so I'm hoping that time will heal everything though I'm pretty sure some hypo won't go away (after last picosure treatment) b/c it seems to not improve at all... i also had significant fading. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before getting lasered two days ago... This time though I've had a bit of bleeding from the treatment...still no where near as severe as when I got picosure (thank goodness). i'm feeling more positive because there was so much fading and most of the hypo was gone except for about the size of a quarter... Some spots are pretty much gone & others seem to remain fairly dark but I think this is normal. Is really interesting to see because it shows how non-uniform the tattoo artist tattooed (lots of ink in some places/ where ink is deeper than other parts/ etc).

So I had another session in Dec. The after care was worse than the 1st time at my new clinic but still FAR better and less painful than the picosure. Before I got lasered, we looked at my tattoo again. I definitely got hypopigmentation from my last picosure treatment unfortunately and as the ink goes away, the hypopigmentation under it becomes more prevalent. I do not think this is from the Quanta laser sessions because the recovery time is so much quicker and less painful than the picosure and there is never blistering, etc. Anyways, I am attaching some pics where you can see that I have very noticeable fading but also noticeable hypopigmentation.

I cannot impress upon people enough the fact that despite what a clinic says about the amount of treatments needed to remove a tattoo, you SHOULD EXPECT MORE treatments and SHOULD NOT let them blast you hard!!! Now I have hypopigmentation that may never go away so I'll essentially have a white tattoo. Most of the whiteness went away after I waited 6 mos after my last picosure (4th txt) but not all of it (which you could see still around the ink a bit). As the ink fades, the whiteness becomes more apparent.

Despite this, I have decided to continue with the treatments because my options are as follows:

1. Continue with treatments and try and get the ink out, hoping that the hypopigmentation will go away later or at least some of the tattoo will be removed without the hypopigmentation.
2. Get a cover up tattoo now over the whole tattoo.
3. Stop treatments and see if hypopigmentation goes away and have further sessions afterwards but those might just cause the hypopigmentation to return (either whiteness now or later).
4. Quit.

Quitting is not an option. This thing looks awful now. Waiting to see if the hypopigmentation goes away doesn't seem to make sense either as I did that after the 4th treatment and some of it remained even after 6months and upon further sessions, it just came back. So I'm going to have my 6th session tomorrow (remember that the first clinic said 4-6 sessions maximum).

My hope is that the hypopigmentation goes away after I am done with the laser sessions OR at least some of the tattoo goes away without hypopigmentation to reduce the size of a possible cover up tattoo.

Again I would like to tell people: DO NOT BELIEVE WHEN THEY SAY PICOSURE HALVES THE TIME REQUIRED!!!! You need to take it slowly!! Everyone's skin is different and everyone's ink is a different type and the laser tech cannot know how you will react. One other note I'd like to make is that the picosure is not necessarily the best laser or black ink. I have now researched this thoroughly. It is the best for colored inks but not necessarily for black ink.

Fortunately I have found a this new laser tech who is honest about things. He admits, everyone has different skin and inks and so there is no certainty of results. So tomorrow I am going back to get my 6th treatment. I will continue to update as this progresses.