Removing All Black 2.5 Year Old Tattoo

I really suck at updating on here but this photo of the tattoo was taken in October 2020, 8 months after my first treatment! I have since gotten a second treatment the following December 2020 and will post an update of my current status later this week. Spacing out the appointments definitely helps in my opinion. It's also crazy to look back on here at the before photo compared to this photo!

These 2 photos are from my original post but zoomed in and next to each other so you can see the differences from just a few hours. The lighting in the first picture is definitely better but you can still see where fading has already begun. The removal specialists told me that my intake of 1 cup of coffee per day is totally fine so I will not be changing that. I am going to purchase vitamin E oil tomorrow to begin daily application. I also created a daily health checklist to make sure I am doing everything necessary to aid in the removal of this tattoo on my part (taking multivitamin, fish oil, drinking adequate water, eating foods with vitamin C, getting 7-8 hours of sleep, etc.). As stated in my first post I am already a very healthy person but there's always room for improvement!

This tattoo is my third tattoo. I LOVE my first 2 and I think the art on this one is also great, but after getting it I realized it is too big and bulky for my liking in that placement. It caused me severe depression and anxiety when I first got it. Now it really only affects my anxiety. It is on my forearm so I do not feel comfortable showing my arms which is hard when it's warm outside. I can't wear a lot of the clothes I have and I find myself doing things that I used to love (running, going to the beach, etc.) less because I don't like it showing. I thought about removal since the day after getting it and finally started the process. I know treatments can be done every 6-8 weeks but I'm going to space them apart as much as possible. I just paid off my undergrad loans and am now paying for grad school so money is very tight for me. The first session cost $400 which is about what I expected. The Finery was great. The staff were super nice. The whole removal process was quick and relatively painless. I am experiencing some pain and swelling now about 6 hours after, but that is to be expected. They used the RevLite at today's session but will probably use Picoway at the rest they said. I have pretty high hopes for the process as most of the shading is already disappearing on the first day. I am a pretty healthy 23 year old. I have never smoked, I eat very healthy majority of the time, drink plenty of water and tea, and I exercise pretty regularly. I do drink coffee at least once a day so I'm considering trying to cut that out. I also tend to get sick easily so I'm going to ensure I am eating as many antioxidant-rich foods as possible. The photos I am posting now are from right before the first treatment, immediately after, and then about 6 hours after. I will post another photo update when the redness and swelling go away.