Removal of brand new dense black

I am going to be getting married in June of 2013. I had always had this terrible tattoo of a pinup girl on my right forearm that i thought would be nice to cover up by the wedding. She never really bothered me too much, but i understood that she didnt look quite right and was eager to have something better done.

My artist came up with a large black panther design and in my excitement i went for it.

immediate regret. Its a nice piece of work, but it just isnt me. Its too large...too black...its just wrong. I cant believe I went this route.

After a week of having the tattoo and obsessing over it, not eating, not sleeping...I decided to look into laser removal. (what i really should have just done in the first place before i made a mess of my arm!!!)

Unfortunately it is just so hard to find any success stories out there, so i am apprehensive.

I went to a consultation yesterday (tattoo is a week old now) and met with a very nice woman named Joyce Furlong. Apparently she has just opened this new clinic locally called "Ink Plan B". she is a registered nurse who became a licensed laser tech through National Laser Institute in Scottsdale, AZ. Already that sounded pretty good to me, as from what i have been reading med spas should be avoided.

I was nervous but she let me sob a little bit as i told her my story. I showed her my arm. She didnt seem to frightened by it...

She told me that FORTUNATELY black inks were the easiest to remove. She id say though that this ink is deep and dense and will take a very very long time to break up. She told me there could be no guarantees that my tattoo will go away completely, but that when there is a 100% removal it is with black tattoos. She really made me feel very good. She explained that she uses a Medlite C-Series Nd-YAG Q-switched laser and that it does very well with black inks. She then quoted me $150 per session and wanted to see me every four weeks. I was blown away with how cheap it was going to be. I can definitely do that once a month. I am scheduled for my first appointment one week from today, when my tattoo has completely healed.

She did warn me, however, that I may not see ANY results whatsoever for the first 3 or 4 treatments. She then told me that if i am worried about my wedding she has some great creams and makeup that could cover up my arm without rubbing off on my dress. super nice.

a few hours later i had obsessively been googling images of tattoo removals and becoming depressed. Most ended up looking mangled, scarred, or photoshopped. The scarring scared me the worst.

I actually ended up calling Joyce and asking her about the scarring. she told me that most of the time scarring occours when the laser is too hot for the person and burns and blisters them. This usually happens in med spas where the laser tech is used to using lower powered lasers for hair removal. She told me confidently that i would not blister or scar, but warned me again that it would take anywhere from 10-15 sessions to know if this is something i can remove completely or not. Thats TWO YEARS!

That being said, if i dont expect to see results in the first few months, then maybe i will grow accustomed to it and get it finished. Doubtful though. I would not mind looking down someday and just seeing an empty forearm. Luckily it is a GOOD tattoo... so while i have to live with it i hopefully wont HATE it. I do worry that as we go along with this process it will just start looking terrible. At 25 yrs old the last thing i want to do is walk around with a huge tattoo on my forarm that looks to be the same age that I am!

My least favorite thing about regretting this tattoo is that it makes me almost regret all of my others that i have always absolutely loved. That just feels terrible.

So I have been searching this forum for a couple of days now and i see some people already 5/6 months into the process. I hope to join and i hope that you guys can help me stay positive. Its going to be a long road. Last night after my consultation with Joyce was the first time ive slept the whole night through... good sign, eh?