Picosure and Enlighten - Cape Girardeau, MO

Ok, so shortly after I turned 19 in 2000, I decided to get a tattoo. For whatever reason, I chose a Celtic design that appealed to me at the time. The tattoo was supposed to have black outlines and then color added later on. I liked it well enough without the color, so I never went back for session two. A few years passed by and I realized that I no longer liked it because it did not have any significant meaning to me and the lines weren't nearly as sharp and crisp as it was when I first had it done, so in 2012, I decided to start laser tattoo removal.

Going into tattoo removal, I didn't know much about it. I selected a doctor's office that had a machine and booked an appointment. I didn't really ask any questions but I do know they had a YAG machine. I had 2 treatments and I'm almost certain both treatments were underpowered. I didn't feel much pain because I had been injected with Lidocaine shots. After the 2nd treatment, there was almost no change whatsoever. I had a 3rd appointment booked but found out the machine was broken and send in for repairs. After a couple months, they got the machine back and scheduled treatment #3. Before that appointment, the machine broke again and was sent back off. Meanwhile, I grew frustrated and called a different place that had an IPL machine that promised to remove tattoos. Instead of booking a session, the doctor had me pay $50 do to a test spot. The test spots blistered and when they were completely healed, those spots had permanent hypo pigmented marks. I've since researched and learned that IPL is NOT an ideal machine for tattoo removal. Months went by and the clinic I originally visited bought a new machine since the old YAG couldn't be fixed. Their new machine was the Picosure. To date, I've had 11 treatments on my tattoo. The first 4 treatments I had used Lidocaine injections (at my insistence, not the doctor's) and tattoo barely budged. The doctor believes the medicine in the injections was blocking the laser from doing it's job. For the treatments after that, they used a numbing cream and then they eventually bought a chiller machine at treatment #6 (which helped immensely!!!). The first couple Pico treatments were at 4.0 spot size and then it was dropped to a 3.0 spot size with 100% PicoBoost. For my last two treatments, the spot size was 2.0mm, 100% boost and the joules were somewhere around 5 I think. My tattoo has significantly faded since Picosure treatment number 5 and while everyone's body is different, I truly believe the lidocaine was prohibiting the laser from doing it's job with me.

Like everyone else on this site, there are days when I feel frustrated with the process and then there are other days were I see results. However, compared to the original tattoo, it's come a LONG way and I'm hoping that in 5 or 6 more treatments (maybe less?) my tattoo will be gone for good.

Here are a couple pics that I took last night. You'll have to excuse the crazy angles. It's a little difficult trying to take a picture of my lower backside by myself. The tattoo still seems a little darker than what it appears in these pics. It was exactly 4 weeks since treatment number 11 and I go for number 12 on April 4th (exactly 8 weeks since the last session). My plan is to keep going every 8 weeks, so I'm hoping this will be completely faded by the end of the year.

Ok, so here are my pictures from the 12th treatment. There has been very little change that last 2 treatments and I'm becoming discouraged. Sorry for the upside down and sideways pictures. Wish I knew how to change that.