Full sleeve lightening

Well, I think I've spent enough time quietly lurking this community and its time to share. Long story short I had a friend who was a tattoo artist and got a sleeve of tattoos that mean nothing to me very fast, a few years ago. As if regret wasn't enough already, I got a piece on my upper arm finished, thinking maybe I would like it more with completion.....wrong. My artist rushed, was stressed, and left me with a huge mess on my arm. I'm not willing to share photos yet because I am so embarrassed of my arm. I am trying to remain positive as my father has willingly offered to help me wth the lightening of my entire sleeve, to cover it up with a floral piece that will look pretty and feminine forever (right now I have heavy metal artwork all over my arm, what was I thinking?). I drove 100 miles out of town to consult with the only picosure laser in the state. The doctor is an MD and seems very confident in helping me lighten my arm as he has been doing tattoo removal for 17 years. Most of my tattoos are black and red but Ido have a piece with a large amount of dark blue. Hopefully within two years (spacing treatments out everything 3 monthes) and dividing my arm in half, I will be able to cover it wth a beautiful design I can be proud of. I will share progress photos once I begin my treatments in the next few weeks.

I am going for my fourth consultation next saturday. As I'm sure some of you can imagine, I have gone to each and every place offering tattoo removal that is somewhat in my area since this entire situation has arose. This doctor has a very small practice, offering ONLY tattoo removal. Here in florida, tattoo removal has to be performed either by or under direct supervision of a doctor, so not alot of places offer it aside from medspas which I have not gotten a good vibe from, if they tell you they can miraculously make it go away, it should be a red flag not to go there. Anyways, this doctor only offers tattoo removal, he has been doing it for 20 years, and sees patients on an appointment only basis. He unfortunatley does not have the picosure laser, but since my tattoos are mostly black and red, this might be a better option for me cost wise, meaning i can get more treatments without having to wait so long because of the high cost of the pico. I will update as soon as I have my consultation. I also want to add that i really feel better about this situation since I started coming to this website and seeing that people really do know how I feel. I feel like most of us are women, and I want to say what a strong pack of ladies we really are. These feelings are NOT easy to deal with, but the important part is that its making us better people in the end who are really learning from our mistake. So even though we all hate our tattoos, I kind of see mine as a blessing, because though this process is shitty, we will all come out stronger women in the end. Also, stress will do WAY more damage on your body than the laser removal will. I advise spoiling yourself with fun as much as you can. My boyfriend has been so great and supportive through this whole mess, constantly cheering me up with fun stuff. You can never get back the time spent stressing over something that CAN be fixed, so i'm trying to focus on enjoying my life as much as possible right now. Jeez, I'm rambling. I hope everyone has a good night, you're all beautiful, and remember, your tattoos DONT define you, and no one notices as much as you do. XOX

I went for my fifth and final consult today and have decided to go with this clinic. Being as my tattoos are mainly black and red I'm going to save myself some money without doing picosure and just doing the qyag. The doc did a test spot on a little area of black shading and that I have, it didn't hurt as horrible as I thought, but it was a tiny section so I'm sure bigger is worse. Here's a photos a few hours later, the black shading is pretty much gone! This is not frosting, that went away. Very excited, the tiny area is quite swollen but comfortable. First real session next week!

I had my first treatment on 1/4 of my full sleeve (shoulder area) a little over a week ago, it seems to be pretty effective, I got some small to medium blisters on the entire thing, that then turned into relatively thick scabs which are now flaking off and the scabs are completely saturated with ink and the skin underneath appears lighter. I never heard of this before but if the ink is leaving my body any way that's good I guess! My areas of grey shading are probably about 50% reduced already and those areas didnt scab, only my heavy dense areas did. I will post a photo soon once all the scabs flake off and you can see the complete result. The treatment itself wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, my tech is really cool and knowledgeable and talked to me the entire time and made me super comfortable. Next treatment for the next panel of my arm in a few weeks! So relieved to know its working.

So I got some scabs from my first treatment and I ended up scratching the hell out of them in my sleep and ripping some of them off :/ some of the areas are raised up and shiny with no ink or pigment at all. Ugh I'm so pissed at myself. I am very fair skinned and I tend not to scar at all even when I've previously had scabs that I pick to death, they never stay raised so hopefully they will go away eventually, it will be a few months before I am ready to treat this section of my arm anyways. I go for a treatment this Saturday for the next area of my arm, a little nervous because its toward the inside of my bicep and I have alot of dark dense ink so I know it's gonna hurt alot. Not gonna do numbing unless I have to, I will have cold air though.

I pushed back my second session a bit because of being busy and school starting but I'm going this weekend. I am lucky because th scabs that I scratched off in my sleep seemed to take most of the ink with them and my skin doesn't seem to be raised but it is still shiny so I know it's still healing....

Went well, frosted up nicely. I probably won't see a super dramatic result this time as the area I had treated was way more solid/not much shading this time. Went good though, my tech is awesome and he always makes very comfortable. Ill post a healing pic tomorrow!