Big Tattoo, Big Regret

Hey all, just had my 1st picosure treatment yesterday (8th treatment overall). I'm all red and kinda bruised, but pretty happy with the treatment. my tattoo seemed to have a much stronger reaction than it did to my last q switched treatment. It was also a lot less painfull as this clinic had me put the cream on 2 hours before my session vs the 45 minutes that the previous clinic did. For ease of having to drive there with the cream on my back, we only did the top half during yesterday's session. I'll be going back in a few weeks to do the bottom. I've been feeling pretty down lately, so here's hoping that I see a lot of fading after this session!

I wish I had found this site when I first started my tattoo removal process, but better late than never. I have a few tattoos, the first one I got at 16, from a friend of a friend. I don't think he was even licensed at the time. He did make me get permission from my parents, and my mom was even there with me when I got my first tattoo. I wish I could blame her for letting me get the stupid thing, but it was my decision. It was a silly little lower back design (obviously drawn by a 16 year old without much artistic talent). I'm not eBen sure what it was supposed to be... A heart with black vines??? But I loved it at the time. Years pass and I had gotten a few other tattoos in between. Then when I was 23 I decided I needed to cover up the "tramp stamp". I found an artist who's work I loved and set up an appointment. she convinced me that my cover up would have to be very large because of how dense and dark the original one is. After talking for awhile we decided on creating a cherry blossom tree that would cover MY ENTIRE BACK. I guess I thought this was a great idea at the time. I made a deposit and an appointment for several weeks later. The day of the appointment I walk in and she informs me that it was too large to draw on the transfer paper and that she was just going to free hand it. Why did I agree to this?! It is so large, we were only able to complete the outline in the 4 hour session. I had a panic attack the moment I got home. For weeks I couldn't eat or sleep. I was physically ill almost every day, and my anxiety drove me into a deep depression. I waited a few weeks to see if I changed my mind but nothing changed. I immediately started to look into laser removal. I had a consultation and was told to wait 6 months and let my skin heal. I did, and have since had (I believe) 7 sessions at Blink Tattoo Removal in Bellevue. I think they use a Lutronic Q Switched laser. I will post pics of my progress so far. Its been almost 2 years since I got the tattoo, and it has been a very difficult journey. I am now getting consultations at other clinics that have the Picosure laser to see if that will speed up the process. I wish I had been taking more photos throughout, but my back is very difficult to photograph, and my boyfriend is the only person that knows what I'm going through. I am happy to have found a supportive community here.

I have probably spent about $3,200 on my 7 treatments at Blink Tattoo removal so far. I have a very large tattoo that I desperately need gone. It is an outline of a tree that covers almost my whole back. After I got the outline (which took 4 hours) I panicked and cancelled my next appointment. I went into a deep depression and decided my only choice was to get it removed. It has been very slow progress so far, so I'm switching to another clinic that has a picosure laser, hoping this will speed up the process. They also want to do a CO2 treatment before the removal. Does anyone have any experience with this? This thing is really getting me down, and all I do is hate myself all day long for getting it. I had my consultation at the new clinic today, and they are going to split it up into 5 different sections. The cost of each section is $500. I cried in my car afterwards. I can't believe this mistake is costing so much. I really hope I only need a few more sessions to get this thing off me. What do you guys think? Will my skin ever look the way it used to?