NZ Tattoo Removal with Quanta Q Plus C Laser. Wellington, NZ

This time I tried listening to music through my earphones and focusing on the lyrics. This really helped my perception of the time spent getting treated to go faster. I found after this session that it did not need to be iced for very long before it became more comfortable, about a few hours, instead of constantly until bedtime. Previously I would leave the dressing on until the next morning, however this time it felt like it was rubbing the tender skin, so I took the dressing off. I had bled onto the dressing and as you can see in the pic, the area looks quite rough. I'm hoping it will look better in the morning.
Happy fading all!

This time was interesting, as the top part of the tattoo- the part that is only the old tattoo and had not been re-outlined in May 2012- had faded quite a bit from the first treatment. Although the darker bottom part of the tattoo was still mighty painful when receiving the laser, the top part was fine when getting treated. Jane used a higher setting on the more faded area and explained that it is less painful because the pain is caused by the ink shattering, and that as there is less ink, there is less pain. Joy! So it will get LESS PAINFUL each time! Hurrah!
It truly makes me wish I had not tried to 'fix' it. But ce la vie.
Presently I am about a week and a half post 2nd treatment, so it's almost settled down. I'm glad to see definite progress with the fading. You can see in the pic 2 days post 2nd treatment, that it was a bit more inflamed this time. I think this is because Jane tried a higher setting...
Happy fading!

The first treatment was a while ago now, but in order to give a full account I thought I'd include it.
It was painful! Whew! I had been told that it was worse than getting the tattoo, like rubber bands slapping you, all of that. Well heck, it was nasty. Jane uses a cooling system, and I had already taken 1g panadol, and slathered Emla 5% cream on the area (lignocaine & prilocaine topical anaesthesia), and it was still the kind of pain where I needed to pinch my hands as hard as I can and take long slow breaths. I found myself thinking about things like, each zap was one I never needed to go through again, and visualising my clear back when the tattoo is gone. Still it was only about 20mins compared to the ages it took to get the tattoo in the first place, so that's a bonus.
Following the lasering, Jane covered the area with a dressing to stay on until the following morning, and instructed me on aftercare.
I pretty much constantly iced it for 24hrs, and when the dressing came off in the morning I used pure aloe vera gel on it. It was pretty sore and hot, but did not blister or scab, as you can see in the pic from the day after treatment. I applied creams pretty much constantly for 2wks following the treatment. It went through the sore phase, then the dry and freaking itchy stage- I did not itch, but I put on a lot of creams. I found the most soothing and effective to be a zinc based baby nappy balm by Eco Store (similar to sudocreme) until about a week and a half, then a mix of either vitamin A or E cream for the last half week, then I just occasionally moisturised it as per usual with rosehip oil (good for reducing scarring).