My Tattoo Story...Getting Them and Regretting Them. _ Nashville, TN

So here is my story...I always contemplated getting a tattoo and thought long and hard about it before I got mine at the age of 20. It was just a script of a verse out of a song my father wrote for my mother before he passed ad I got it in my mothers handwriting. Loved the tattoo but didn't love that the guy blew out the letters and scarred my skin in some areas. Im a perfectionist so it bothered me a lot. I waited a year and started looking around for people to get a cover up. I wanted to cover it with roses and still get the first line of the verse around the roses (Roses will fade but the memories remain). so I finally found someone that was in my price range and had done some really good work from what I could tell from his book. So I started the cover up and got half of it done but to my dismay I realized that the original tattoo was not covering. So I decided to not go any further with it and started my search for tattoo removal. I recently just went to my first treatment on May 1. She estimated that it would take 12 to 18 for full removal worst case scenario. They put ice packs on it before they started the treatment and they used the medlite c6 laser and it only took about 10 mins but damn did it hurt. By the way my pain threshold is like a 0. But it bared through it with no breaks so I guess it wasn't as bad as it could be and I had my mom by my side to hold my hand. Afterwards they put on some antibiotic cream and I didnt have any bleeding or blistering but she did say as we got further down into my dermis I would see the bleeding and scabbing and blistering. It burned for about a hour and then calmed down. The next day it was just a little sore and now im 2 days post treatment and it just itches a lot but the A and D cream helps with that. I haven't really seen a change in the tattoo but in some places I can see what I believe is the breaking up. All I know is I love my body very much and I have always been very confident with my looks but with summer coming up and this tattoo around my hip I can only feel depressed and a sense of dread. All ive done is cry and obsessively research how to cover up my tattoo for my beach trip I have planned with all my college friends and all those summer days ill be in my bikini. Im just going to try and be hopeful and not let myself get to down...but right now that seems impossible.

Today I'm itching like crazy!!! And my skin is starting to peel as if I had a horrible sunburn.... I'm keeping a and d ointment on it but that only helps so much. It makes me not look forward to the blisters and scanning and more itching! lYesterday me and my friend went and got me some samples of dermablend leg and body and the setting powder since it's suppose to be the number one tattoo cover makeup and waterproof! I'm gonna try it and see if that's true with my samples later so I can be ready for the summer and my beach trip...fingers crossed! Ill post pictures later to show if it covers or not.

So I tried out my dermablend leg and body last night and I still need some practice on blending but it actually worked! The sample I got was a little to dark for me but I get much tanner in the summertime so it might be perfect after I tan a little more. My tattoo is raised though and I'm guessing that's mostly from having my treatment five days ago? After applying the dermablend and setting powder I got in the shower to test out the waterproof theory and that was actually true! Nothing can't off with the water just running over it I have to rub my hand on to get anything off and still I had to use makeup remover to actually get it off. So I'm pretty sure swimming won't affect it at all! This gives me a little relief for this summer since I'll be in my bikini a lot and am self conscious of my body now when I never have been before. It's deff a change for me but just gotta stay strong and think of the positives! Hope this updates helps everyone!