Regretting Cover-up Tattoo. Treatment with Picoway laser - Oslo, Norway

Some years ago I got a tattoo on my lower leg in memory of my grandfather after his death (a knife blade - he was a knife smith and he also taught me to make knives.) but it did not turn out very well. Since then I`ve tried to fix it many times (including getting another tattoo of a knife blade over the old one as suggested by a tattoo-artist. Stupid I know, but I was really desperate. Totally regretting it now) until last fall I decided to get a cover-up. By then I was pretty desperate and just wanted a nice tattoo and be able to use skirts and shorts. I asked the tattoo-artist what kind of motive would work best, but he said I could choose whatever I wanted and he would make it work. So I did. I use a picture of a beatiful watercolor tattoo as an example, saying I wanted something like that. He said it would be very easy to do it. Turns out we had different expectations and I`m not pleased with the end result.

I`m now too ashamed of the tattoo to use shorts or skirts. I feel everybody is looking at it and judging me because of it. Through the last 4-5 years and my many attempts to fix it, there have been so many emotions attached to it. It began as a way to remember my grandfather and now I just feel I`ve destroyed the skin on my leg forever. I`ve been so depressed and shed many tears over this. It`s almost constantly on my mind and is definitely affecting my daily life. My family must be sick hearing about it by know. Sometimes I just want to trow up thinking about it.

I just don`t know what to do. Should I try and get it faded with a laser and have the cover-up redone by someone else? I know it will probably mean several years of summers in long jeans, a lot of pain and money, but I feel like I`m at the bottom of a deep, black pit right now. I`m also scared that my many attempts to fix it have made it more difficult to remove it now. There`s many layers of ink there by now. But the thought of having that thing on by leg for the rest of my life just makes me depressed and sick. I`m also scared of scarring, but right now I`d rather have a big scar there than the tattoo. What should I do? Is it possible to remove it or fade it (or parts of it) at all?

I have now booked an appointment for consultations with two clinics just to hear what they have to say. One which uses the Medlight C6 and one who uses Picosure. I`ve learnt my lesson and are examining all possibilities before making a choice! The one who uses Picosure is the only one in my country and is only a year or so old. As far as I`ve been able to find out the people who have tried it at the clinic all have ended up with over twice the number of treatments they were told they would need when they started. The clinic that uses the Medlight have a max price based on size, colors, difficulty, etc. You pay per treatment, but if the number of treatments exceeds the max price, you get the rest of the treatments for free. Which is a comfort economy wise. I have also heard nothing but good things about them when it comes to removing tattoos. And then there is the whole red ink thing with Picosure. The Picosure clinic has something similar to the max price on the other clinic, only they offer free treatments for 6 months after reaching the max price (which would probably only mean 1-2 free treatments since you have to have a rest period between each session?). Anyway, I`ll be talking to both of them and seeing what they have to say.

I hope to be able to remove or at least fade a lot of the darkest, densest middle part (the one of the cover-up) of my tattoo and have it redone (though I really, really don`t want to step foot inside another tattoo-studio again... too many bad feelings). The upper an lower part are okay and something I can live with.

During the last month I`ve been to three consultations at different laser clinics in Oslo. All of the clinics had either a doctor or a nurse operating the laser. And all of them seemed very professional and friendly and answered all of my questions.

The first one I went to was the Oslo Kosmetiske Lasersenter that uses a Medlight laser. One of the things I liked best about this place was that the woman I spoke with said she simply could`t give me an estimate on how many treatments I would need because it varied so much from tattoo to tattoo. It`s nice that they are honest and don`t give you false expectations. All in all it seemed like they had long experience with removing/fading tattoos. The price for the first session was 246 dollars (2000 kr) and then 123 dollars (1000 kr) for each session after that, which is affordable. I could definitively go back there. They did not do a testpatch.

I also had a consultation at the Eraze clinic who have a Picosure laser last Friday (11. september). They are getting the booster for red ink this month. I think the people working there are all nurses. They did a small testpatch and I got a nice, big blister afterwards, but I was told that was normal. The clinic even called me a few days later to hear how the testpatch went! That`s good service :) They took the testpatch on an area in witch there was both red, black, yellow and blue ink. Since they didn`t have the booster yet there was no reaction on the red ink. I got frosting on both the black and blue ink. I`m not sure if I can see any fading on the black ink yet, but I`ll have to wait and see. The blue on the other hand, definitely had a reaction! The blue is a lot more faded. Right now it looks like a horrible bruise though! :P The price for Picosure was around 300 dollars a session (2500 kr) for a tattoo of my size. The price is a bit high, but it would be worth it for good results. However, from reading other reviews here, I have gotten the impression that due to the wavelength it operates on (755), Picosure isn`t really the best for dense, black tattoos.

The third clinic I visited, Remove, uses the new Picoway laser. I visited them yesterday (16. september). They opened a couple of months ago, so they are quite new. I didn`t even know about them until a tattoo artist I was discussing my future cover-up with told me about them. The man I meet with was a doctor (as is the others working there I think, which is comforting to know). He was very nice and professional. He also knew about knew about the realself-site (which none of the other clinics were aware of). The Picoway operates at two diffenternt wavelenght, both 532 for red, orange, yellow and 1064 for black and other colours. They did a small testpatch and I think I can see fading on both the red and black ink (they did not test any blue ink), but I don`t know if that`s just wishful thinking on my part. Is it possible to see fading shortly after a treatment or do you have to wait a few weeks? So far no blisters. The price was quiet high though. For a tattoo of my size it would be about 430 dollars per sessions (3500 kr). However, the had a special offer of 40% off of all treatments paid in september. Which means the price per session will be around 260 dollars instead (2100 kr)! The doctor thought I would need about five sessions to fade it enough for a cover-up and gave me an offer of five sessions at 40% off. Should I need less than that I get a refund for the unused sessions.

I`ve decided I`m going to go for the Picoway at Remove. Yes it is more expensive that the Medlight, but it is said to be the best laser on the market and are suppose to be less harsh on the skin. I know I won`t be able to pay full price for it, so if I want to try it it will have to be now. Hopefully I will only need five sessions.

I`ll post some pictures once the testpatches are healed.