POSTED UNDER PicoSure REVIEWS
My Picosure Experience - Vienna, VA
ORIGINAL POST
I have a consultation on Thursday (March 26th) for...
$970
I have a consultation on Thursday (March 26th) for my unfinished half sleeve. I had originally planned on only having black ink and shading on this tattoo but I was talked into getting color... terrible idea. I've always been nervous about putting color on my skin since its light brown and I hate that from a bit of a distance it looks like a dark blob on my arm. I've been in a deep depression over this. It's a grenade in a bunch of roses that I got started while I was in the army. The tattoo artist I went to that was suppose to "fix" a flower for me, ended up changing the rose into some other kind of messy flower. On top of me hating the flower, it's purple and he added so many leaves around it that weren't there when it was drawn onto my skin (he free-handed it). I fell asleep during the tattoo so I wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing. Needless to say... Ill never fall asleep during a tattoo again. He also added ugly blue shading around it that we didn't agree on. It makes me sick to look at it. Everyone I've shown it to loves it and says it looks great on me. But I feel like it's just not my personality at all and it's embarrassing. Ill post pictures after I'm sure I can go through with this. This site keeps me sane and I'm so grateful for all of the people here! I do have 7 other tattoos that I love.
UPDATED FROM SavannahBrie
8 days pre
Consultation Day!!
I had my consultation at Untattoou in Vienna, VA with Hilary. She has really put my mind at ease and I feel like I can sleep well knowing that she's so optimistic about this mess on my arm. She says that my skin tone is not an issue and she is very confident that we will get this tattoo lightened up enough for a coverup. She says 3 treatments but as I've seen on this site plenty of times, I can bet it'll take a couple, if not a few more than that. My first treatment will be next Saturday (April 4th). As you can see from the picture, I have a lot of purple and green PLUS I'm Caucasian, African American, and Japanese so who knows how my skin will react. Fingers crossed this all works out for me. I'm ready for this journey and I'm so glad I have all of you wonderful people to ride along with me.
Replies (10)
March 29, 2015
good luck and keep updating your journey ;)
April 1, 2015
I had a similar experience that really caused a lot of anxiety and depression in my life. I too have started the picosure treatments on a full sleeve. It started out with a couple pieces on my arm that didn't come out as planned so a friend who's been tattooing for years out of his home said he could blend it into a full sleeve. I was determined to finish since I had already started and was getting positive feedback from mutual friends to trust his vision and keep going. Well that was a mistake! Ended up looking like an poorly done prison sleeve. I panicked and found an artist who assured me he could polish it up and id love it. He also added a ton of color which I agreed on to help offset the prison look. Ended up looking so dark and still ugly. So after many sleepless nights I found a picosure clinic not too far from home and had my first treatment. I hope it will close to gone by next year for an awesome cover-up. I am more than thrilled with the piece on my right shoulder and I am looking forward to the same artist doing my cover-up sleeve. Thank you for sharing your experience Savannah. Comforts me knowing I am among others going through this experience.
April 2, 2015
Oh you're absolutely not alone! I'm hoping by 4 treatments it'll be light enough for a cover-up because if all goes as planned ill be able to have it done before my honeymoon in Korea. Fingers crossed this nurse knows what she's talking about and ill only need 3 but I'm really not holding my breath on that. Good luck with your journey!! :)
April 3, 2015
Thank you for sharing your tattoo removal journey with us. I am glad you are feeling more optimistic about this process, it's not worth loosing sleep over and feeling so down. Keep you chin up, we are all rooting for you! :)
April 4, 2015
Hi Savannah couldnt You tell me how much you are paying for each session ?
Good luck ;)
April 5, 2015
I'm paying a little under $1,000 a treatment. I purchased a package deal of 3 treatments for $2900 with a military discount. She's says she thinks I'll only need 3 but I'm thinking I'll need a couple more.
UPDATED FROM SavannahBrie
Day of treatment
Treatment #1
I had my first treatment today and let me just start off by saying that it was definitely not as bad as I was expecting. I used the Emla cream for numbing but I could tell it wasn't doing it's job even though I followed the instructions to a T. It was totally bearable though. I can describe the feeling of the laser as hot grease hitting my skin. Doesn't feel great but could be worse. She used the cooling machine as she was going so that helped a lot. I already see a big difference. The light blue shading that was around my purple flower has turned grey and there are lines broken up and black shading starting to fade. I'm excited to see continuous changes over the next few weeks. My next appointment is in 7 weeks (May 23rd). We were going to do 6 weeks but I'd like to stick with the same nurse for all of my treatments and she won't be at work that day so I decided to wait another week. She's that great :)
Replies (14)
April 5, 2015
Congrats on getting the process started, glad it was better than expected. How long did you leave the numbing cream on prior to your treatment?
April 5, 2015
I put it on in the car since it's an hour and a half drive up there. It was on for the last hour and however long I was waiting in the waiting room. She said it peaks around 2 hours so I sat there for a bit. She told me to put it on an hour before and slather it on. I used a tube and a half of it.
April 5, 2015
Great results for one treatment at 9 days post. However,I highly suggest you don't do that 6 week timeline, theres a huge chance of destroying your skin and scarring (making for an even harder coverup.) 8 weeks is usually the minimum and i usually come in every 8-10 weeks. i'm glad the blue dissipated, mine looked instantly better when the blue disappeared as well. your tattoo already instantly looks more appealing. (strange right?) your green's look pretty stubborn though. mine turned into that olive/gray tone after first treatment.
April 5, 2015
I trust that she knows what she's doing. She's using a more gentle setting just because of the increased risk of negative effects. My greens have turned into the olive color and I'm getting tiny blisters on the lines of the leaves. The purple has gotten lighter and and turned kind of grey. But I am super happy with the results so far. I'd be more concerned about the 6 week wait if she didn't seem like she had my best interest at heart.
April 5, 2015
you're very fortunate to have lines break up like that.. it means the artist didn't really drill those lines in there. my outlines are breaking up on all of my tattoos where the artist had a light hand but my heavy handed forearm sleeve is stubborn on a high setting. two treatments and the lines just began breaking up ever so slightly on it.
April 6, 2015
I have some very heavy lines that are actually scarred. It sucks but hopefully those lines can be incorporated into the next tattoo.
April 8, 2015
Hey there SavannahBrie, don't worry - I have very bad scarring from the heavy handed artist that did my tattoo, and my cover-up looks just fine. It sticks out to me because I know exactly where the skin is raised, and I can feel it, but nobody has ever noticed - in fact they are shocked when I tell them it is a cover up.
April 9, 2015
the raised lines can be reduced. i notice that the lines become a lot less raised with every treatment and daily 5-10 minute massaging to the area (i use aquaphor but any oil is fine i think.) i was recommended this by my technician and it has helped reduced the scar tissue underneath the skin a whole lot. doesn't do much for outside scarring but as long as we can get rid of some kind of scarring its ok with me!
April 5, 2015
Thanks for the update. I look forward to seeing your progress over the next few months. I'm glad it didn't hurt that much (although, with all due respect, I'm going to take that with a grain of salt considering you fell asleep during the tattoo process. lol).
April 5, 2015
I am also mixed with light brown skin so I am really excited to see how this works for you. I am having Picosure to clean up some serious blowout/ink bleed around a recent tattoo on my arm in a few weeks. I like the tattoo, i just need the shadow removed so we'll see how it goes. If it goes well on me, and your bigger project seems promising, I'm going to start working on some bad ink I got in 2000 as a rebellious teen :)
Replies (9)