22 Years Old with Lots of Tattoo Regret.

I can't believe a year has already passed since my latest session. Since then I purchased my first house, so I had to be very careful with spending money for a bit while settling into the new home. I've slightly gotten used to the insecurities with them, but I still dread wearing small skirts/shorts and short sleeves. I've finally scheduled my next tattoo removal session in 3 weeks with Dr. Mundt though, which will be session #2 on my arm.

My arm needs approx. 4 - 6 sessions since it has less color, and my leg needs approx. 6 - 9 sessions since it has more color.

Despite the 1+ year break from treatments for both, I still continuously see the colors and line-work fade throughout the months. :)

When I mentioned I had a lot of tattoo regret I meant 2 different large pieces, and a smaller one. I'll be posting pictures of the before/after of session #1 on my arm here (within the 1+ year healing process) on November 1st. Then I'll be moving onto session #4 on my leg, and so on.

I'm so excited to finally be moving forward with this and can't wait to share my results, in hopes to motivate everyone seeing my posts. :)

It's been about 3 or 4 months since my second session, and I'm very pleased with the results so far. The ink still fades away in certain parts as weeks went by. I'm surprised by how much the purple and yellows have faded since they said those are some of the hardest colors. I asked Dr. Mundt her current estimate on how many sessions I'll need for the coverup, and she says about 3 or 4 more. However, if I want it fully gone it'll still take 6 to 8 sessions. Depending on the 3rd or 4th session I'll decide to continue with the laser on this piece. I'm trying to remain optimistic, and have even been eating healthier as well. I also have another large piece on my arm and have started my first session on this as well. (Which is why I have such a huge amount of regret as previously mentioned.) I never wear shorts or any short sleeves because of these two large pieces. I'm pleased with my first session for the one on my arm, and on the second session I'll post the picture of that one as well.

I really never expected I'd be in this boat along with many other tattooed people. Sometimes you don't realize forever is REALLY forever, and how much research truly needs to go into finding a perfect artist. The nightmare is unbareable honestly. I decided to get a tattoo in a very depressing time in my life, hoping it would somehow help my confidence but it only made it worse. Any time I posted on my facebook asking if anyone knew a great artist, an acquaintance from high school would recommend the same one every time without hesitation. I assumed since how highly they spoke about them they were experienced in the industry, but several tattoos later I find out they've only been tattooing for 2 years at a place that hires rookies so they can get their foot in the door essentially. It wasn't until my boyfriend's tattoo got infected I realized the shop I was going to was just a cheap & convenient place and nothing special. So here I am now, investing thousands of dollars into my body to help regain my confidence and eventually have pieces ontop done by real professional artists. After hours of research I came across Picoway technology which is still fairly new. There's only 3 or so places in Arizona that have this laser, and I decided to go with Delete It Now. My pain tolerance might be high, but the lidacain numbing treatment helps a great amount in handling these procedures. My estimated time for my thigh piece to be removed is around 12 sessions, approximately two years. At first just hearing this I was already like "are you kididng me?" in my head. However, time really is flying by since the first session and seeing the ink slowly disappear several weeks later, it's motivating me to continue my journey. I'm now on my second session (will post pictures in a few weeks when healed!) and prior to this session I'm already seeing a massive change to the coloration. I'm very excited for the sessions to come so I can truly be "me" again.