Picosure on Large, Colorful Wrist Tattoo - Phoenix, AZ

My story will sound familiar to many of you. I got a large peony flower tattooed on my wrist when I was 20 that I was never really happy with. It was one of those decisions made too quickly without much thought. About 6 months ago, I went to a different tattoo artist to have a cover up done. I liked the new design on paper, but I was disappointed with the finished product. So, instead of kicking myself for making two dumb decisions, I've decided to go ahead with tattoo removal using the Picosure laser.

Last week I went to Phoenix Skin in Phoenix, AZ for a free consultation. Overall, it went as expected. The technician was very professional and answered all my questions (there were so many!). I'm trying to go into this experience with realistic expectations. My tattoo is very colorful and most of it have been tattooed multiple times by different artists. I was quoted $350 per treatment based on the size and was told it would probably take close to 10 treatments. Based on the stories I have read here, I am estimating it will probably take more than that but I'll keep my fingers crossed! All the personal experiences others have shared here have really helped me in making the decision to go through with it, so I hope my experiences can be useful to others as well.

This update is overdue, but better late than never! It's been almost 7 weeks since my first treatment and three days since my second so I will split them up into two posts so I don't miss too many details.

First treatment: I iced my wrist for about 30 minutes before I got to the clinic and went in 30 minutes before the actual procedure to get the numbing cream. In retrospect, icing it before the numbing cream was pointless, but I was so nervous, I think it was more of an attempt to calm my nerves. The treatment itself was extremely fast but it honestly hurt more than I thought it would. I hope I don't scare anyone by saying this. I think that I had heard so many people say that it didn't hurt as much as they thought it would, that I expected it to hurt less. In my opinion, it felt like being stabbed by needles repeatedly at about 1000x per second. It was especially painful at the bottom of my hand since the skin is so thin. That being said, it took less than 5 minutes. If you sat for hours to get a tattoo, I promise you will make it through a few minutes of serious pain!

Due to the size of the tattoo and the fact that I am allergic to the orange ink in the flower, my forearm did swell quite a bit within the first 72 hours. I took some Ibuprofen, which did help a little bit, especially the first day after the treatment. Ok, so on to the gritty part: BLISTERS! The leaves blistered A LOT. I was expecting this, but from day 1 to day 3 they tripled in size. I had to keep my arm bandaged close to 2 weeks because they did take quite a bit of time to heal. This may seem like a long time, but the tattoo healed really well with no scarring. The best advice I can give for aftercare treatment is wash the tattoo once a day with a mild dermatological grade soap (I used Cetaphil because it hydrates while it cleanses) and cover it with salve meant for burns to keep it moist. Around the 10 day mark I tried to unwrap it, but unfortunately the deflated blister skin was still healing and one of them tore open so I decided to wait until it healed up more.

I am glad I waited about 6.5 weeks between treatments because I did notice more fading as the weeks went on. Most of the purple shading is gone, leaving the black that was mixed in with it. The green ink in the leaves was blasted out. Its a dull, murky shade now as opposed to a bright green! The coverup on the upper wrist is starting to show through as well It is definitely going to be a long process, but I was happy with the results of the first treatment.

I'm following this post right away with my second treatment.

Alright kids, here is my update from the second treatment. Like I said in my previous post, I waited about 6.5 weeks between the first and second treatment to give my arm sufficient time to heal. This time I went in 30 minutes early to get the numbing cream (no ice this time). The procedure took less than 5 minutes again, but it was SLIGHTLY less painful. I would say it felt less like needles stabbing me and more like someone shooting me at lightning speed with a tiny BB-gun.

It's been three days since the picosure treatment. I still experienced quite a bit of swelling, but I have yet to see a giant blister. Surprisingly, I was a little worried that I didn't because I started to wonder if the laser was up high enough. I do remember her saying she was going to turn it up higher this time, so I think it may just be because most of the green ink was removed during the first treatment.

I'm still cleaning it once a day and using the salve, but I'm thinking I will only have to keep it bandaged for about one week this time instead of two. Oh also forgot to mention- SPF! Once I was able to take the bandages off after the first picosure treatment, I made sure to apply plenty of sunscreen to protect it. Even in the winter, Phoenix is warm and I don't wear long sleeves often so I've been carrying around a mini bottle of SPF in my purse. Cardigans help too when I remember:)