Hello Everyone, I came here to share my experience and hope to find some support. I recently had a tattoo done after my grandma passed away. The tattoo is of a dove holding rosary beads. I have never had a tattoo before and I am not sure what came over me but I thought it would help me 'remember" or honor her. After the tattoo I just felt really sad. This horrible sadness. The tattoo doesn't fit in my personality and just feels like a band aid that I want to rip off. It has caused a lot of anxiety, sleepless nights, loss of appetite and a hole mess of other problems all because of a tattoo. I am surprised at the reaction I have had, I wasn't expecting it at all. That being said, I looked into PICOSURE tattoo removal and started 1 treatment today. The treatment was indeed uncomfortable but I did not use any pain numbing cream which I will use next time. The treatment was pretty fast two about 5 mins is all. I will post pictures after 4 weeks (I need to give the first one time to heal ) but I am just looking for advise on how I can stop obsessing about the tattoo and stop feeling so regretful and sad about it. Thank you Updated on 20 Nov 2014: Okay here it goes. This is one day after my Picosure treatment. Throughout the day after it was done I had a sort of stinging feeling like a "sunburn" I was expecting when I took the bandage off this morning that there would be blistering but I actually have none. Just redness, a little sensitivity and some skin flaking. Updated on 25 Nov 2014: Hello All, I wanted to provide an update approx 1 week (6 days) after my 1st PICOSURE treatment. I saw a difference right away (24 hours) after the 1st treatment and I do see some more fading 1 week in. I think its hard to tell but what I notice the most is the "shading" in the tattoo is almost gone, really all I have is an outline left. I am having my treatments done by a certified Dermatologist and he wanted me to start on the lowest level (3) I am hoping my next treatment which is scheduled in January will have a higher power to speed up the process. Let me know what you think! Updated on 25 Nov 2014: Updated on 30 Dec 2014: Okay it has been 7 weeks from my first Picosure Treatment. I am getting a bit anxious waiting for my next treatment which will be next week 01/7 on Wednesday. I am a bit nervous about the discomfort and healing after words because this one, even though I had a pretty good response, was still red for such a long time it is getting better each day with the help of Shea butter the redness seems to improve but not go away entirely...I am now nervous about hyper pigmentation but want to push forward. Just writing this looking for some comforting words....can't I fast forward to next Wednesday and just get it over with ? Updated on 18 Jan 2015: Hello All, I am so sorry for the delay in my review. I promised I would upload photos of my second picosure treatment, and I waited a little over a week to update until my skin healed a bit. My second picosure procedure was a lot less painful then the first because this time I had a numbing cream applied before I went for the treatment, however the after effect was a little bit worse. This time the doctor turned up the machine to a 3 and used a different laser on the red part of the tattoo, I think they said a q but I'm not sure. After the treatment, I had some blistering and a lot of itching for the first few days after the blisters cleared up pretty quickly and the itching has finally started to get better... But honestly the blisters were not bad at all, compared to what i have seen happen to others, I only had a few small ones and I took care of the itching with an anti-itch cream also when I drank more water-stayed hydrated, it seemed that the itching improved. It has been about 10 days since my second treatment and I am really excited about the results. I have seen the most results in the red area and everyday the entire thing seems to fade more and more. Updated on 18 Feb 2015: Hello All, I decided to post a photo because I have my 3rd picosure treatment coming up this week in two days. I am excited but nervous because I feel like I am going to need a lot more treatments then I hoped for, I was hoping for 5 but I am guessing I am going to need much more...7?8? maybe 10? or am i just over thinking?. I think I see fading when I look at a photo of the tatt, 7 weeks after my 1st picosure treatment compared to now, (6 weeks after 2nd) but really hoping the 3rd treatment will blast it away much more, any thoughts? I wonder how many more I'll need. Updated on 18 Mar 2015: I am over the moon right now about my results following my 3rd picosure treatment. After my second treatment I had not noticed a lot of fading but after this third treatment ...WOW! Almost all of the dense black lines have finally started to noticeably fade - this is a photo of the original tatt and 4 weeks after my 3rd treatment. I have my 4th treatment coming up next week and I can't wait! When I took a picture last night I did not notice the difference until I put the photos side by side this morning> when I saw these two photos side by side I thought "WOW" Finally i can admit that I do see an extreme difference. I'm excited! I was thinking I would need atleast 10 treatments but I am now thinking, maybe I'll be done by 6 ? * fingers crossed* I feel really relieved looking at the two pictures side by side, and finally feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel :) The one thing I do have is redness that seems to stick around even weeks after my treatment - I noticed that cocobutter and hydrocortisone cream help but this time the redness seemed like it lingered around you can see it in this photo but it could also appear more red because my clothing tends to rub on the area and irritate it..... anyway I just wanted to share my progress. Wish me luck next week! I'll keep you all posted Updated on 7 May 2015: Hello All, sorry for my lack of updates. I wanted to stop by quickly to say my tatt is fading nicely but I need to take off some time from treatments due to the cost. I am hoping I can start treatments again in July or August but until that time, I hope that it keeps fading on its own.... Updated on 19 Jun 2015: I took a break from Picosure for a while because of cost mainly. My last treatment was in March, 13 weeks ago. I have to say I've only seen very little fading since my last treatment. I am a bit discouraged and the thought crossed my mind to ask about another form of removal such as surgical excision, skin graphing, I don't know just something else! I made an appt for one more picosure treatment on Tuesday next week, and I am looking into going to a dermatologic surgeon. I love the clinic i go to now but i think at this stage i need to find another opinion. :/ Updated on 12 Aug 2015: I have been behind on my posts and took a break from picosure for a while between March - August, I just recently had a picosure treatment two weeks ago making it my 4th treatment ( i had lost count and thought I had one more but this was my 4th. My 3rd treatment faded a lot but I haven't noticed to much of a difference in fading between the 3rd & 4th treatment. I do see slight fading but I had really dramatic fading with my 3rd treatment so it might be slowing down now or its just to hard for me to tell. The clinic I go to just started using a new picosure laser made for red ink so i tried that the first time i sort of see a difference in the red ink but its hard to tell in pics. :) Updated on 3 Sep 2015: I looked in the mirror this morning and wanted to share an update. It is now 6 weeks after the 4th treatment, I am scheduled for my next on Sept 14th. I noticed this morning that areas have completely disappeared. You can see the lines that connected the beads to the cross are completely gone in some areas A few areas of the bird have vanished completely, i'm not sure why the top tip of the wing on the right side has not faded like the rest of the tattoo but I'm hoping it is just being stubborn, I was discouraged a few weeks ago but feeling a lot more confident now...thinking about moving up my next appointment to next week instead to keep the process rolling. Updated on 4 Sep 2015: I wanted to upload a pic under better lighting I took today finally seeing results from.the 4th treatment six weeks in. I also started putting aloe everyday and shae butter, I'm taking zinc and vitamin c tablets regularly as I read they are good for skin. I really have seen a difference since...
