Laser removal of half sleeve tattoo

I wanted to take some time to share my story in hopes of inspiring others along the same journey. When I came across this site, some members really inspired me and gave me the strength to persist with my own journey and tattoo removal. As I write this, I am one day post my 6th treatment with PicoSure to remove an unfinished black half sleeve. I spent several years in Japan and was always a fan of Irezumi (Japanese) tattoos. I had wanted to cover up a 10 year old tattoo on my shoulder and decided to go for it. I picked out an artist that specializes in Irezumi, and sat for two sessions. This guy does good work, but I was not a fan of the manner in which he 'covered' my old tat and immediately had buyers remorse; it was also much larger than I anticipated and was not easily covered by a t-shirt as I would have liked. I just came to the realization that I did not want to be 'that guy' with the tats. I honestly wish I had known about laser tattoo removal because it would have saved me much pain and agony to simply have my faded 10 year old tattoo removed vice a fresh half sleeve. I am however glad that I did not proceed with the coloring and underarm work, as many of you know, colors can be really difficult to remove.

So I found an awesome tattoo removal specialist, UntattooU in Vienna VA and began my treatment about 8 weeks after receiving the fresh tattoo. I have to say that I am very pleased with the fading and progress given that this was a new tattoo. I no longer desire to be tattoo'd, so I'll persist with the end goal of complete removal, however likely that may be. I've had a total of six treatments over the course of about 20 months. I like to take the summer off so I can enjoy myself and not worry about keeping the arm protected, out of the sun, etc. I can't stress patience enough in this process and wish all of you on this journey the best of luck!

I'm really happy with the fading and how the lines are really starting to break down! Tattoo is ravaged by the laser!

Put together a little comparison of my progress. Brand new tat on the left, middle post 3 PicoSure, and right post 6 PicoSure. Really starts to get noticeable post 6 treatments. I liken this process to exponential results. The more you hit it with, the less ink and more noticeable the results are. Hang in there!