Treatment #3...

         
           This one was much better than the last treatment. There wasn’t as much red ink to treat, so it barely blistered and didn't sting near as long as last time! 

         

           I recorded this one so that people could see how fast the treatment is.  In the video I’m holding a device that blows super cold air.  Since it’s a laser; it immediately feels like a sun burn. So the cold air helps to relieve the sting and minimize the pain.  I don’t use any numbing cream or anything like that, just an ice pack beforehand.  So while it can get uncomfortable at moments, it’s quick and tolerable!  I wave the cold air around for more of like a distraction. It’s probably just a mental thing, but it seems to me like it helps! (Hahaha)  It’s no different than when you’re getting the tattoo done.  The needle as the tattoo is being done can be quite uncomfortable, but as soon as they stop tattooing, the area will just throb for a bit. This, however, is way quicker!  Also, they use some kind of gel to help prevent most of the blistering. Obviously though, there’s no real sure way around it.  Blistering is just part of the process for some. Not everyone will blister though.

          The first video is the black ink being treated. The 2nd video is the red ink. Next treatment is in 6 weeks!  

Update #2...

I haven’t done an update since my last treatment , but now I’m about to do my 3^rd treatment tomorrow actually.  So real quick I’ll go over how it healed up this time after treating the black ink along with the red ink.  Obviously it reacted more severe than the first time. It did sting for a couple of days rather than just a few hours after the treatment, but not so much that I couldn’t tolerate it.  You can see in the pictures it healed just fine though. No scarring or anything like that.  As I said, it looked worse than it really was.  It did take a couple of more days to completely heal than the first time, but that’s totally understandable. I did, however, accidently pop one of the blisters. This in turn popped the whole left side because the smaller blisters ended up linking together and formed one long blister.  Surprisingly enough, though, it didn’t hurt at all either.  

I can see a very significant amount of fading in the black. The pictures once again don’t do it much justice. Much of it looks like a dark gray.  None of it is vibrant anymore. The fading of the red is very noticeable as well!  I’m very pleased with the results after just one treatment to the red ink.  So once again, I’m very excited to see the progress of the next treatment and continue to watch this fade away!

This is what it all looked like while it was healing...

                          

              You can see how the small blisters on the

                 left side are now one long blister... 

The top two pictures are after the blister popped...

      The bottom picture is a few days later as its healing...

                  

                                

                       This is what it looks like now!

                            Before the 3rd treatment... 

Treatment #2...

First off, from the beginning I've said that I will tell and show all of the good, bad and even the disgusting parts of what happens when having a tattoo removed by laser.  Just keep that in mind because right now it's looking a little gross. But it's supposed to.

So, yesterday I had my 2nd treatment.  Oh my goodness! I hope all of this is worth it. I’m kidding I know it will be. But I will say that this time it was a little more painful, but still very tolerable. The worst part is the stinging feeling like when you have a blistering sunburn. Compared to the first treatment, after the first few hours, I really didn’t feel anything again. Even when it blistered it wasn’t bothersome to me.  So I’m really hoping for the same scenario this time as well.  However, after today, I’m going to go ahead and predict that this time may take a little longer to heal. Last time it only took about 2 weeks until it was completely healed. But as I said, this treatment was a tad bit more painful and here's why. This time another laser was used to treat the red ink.  I should be seeing a very significant amount of fading of the red as it heals.  So because the red was actually targeted this time with a different laser, I’m experiencing much more blistering.  From what I’ve researched, when the red is being broken up and absorbed, you tend to have an allergic reaction.  This means more swelling and more blistering. I definitely can see way more swelling.  Also compared to my first treatment, the blisters formed much quicker. Within only just a few hours and just kept getting bigger. They finally stopped growing last night though. However, compared to some pictures and videos I’ve seen of people who have had laser tattoo removal, mine are little bitty.   

Another thing that happened, which you can tell in the pictures what part off the tattoo it was, but when she first started with the laser for the black ink, she thought that I could handle a little higher setting. Well it didn’t take long to figure out that I was not there yet.  This is very much trial and error since everyone reacts differently.  But I promise that it all looks worse than it really is.  And other than some slight discomfort from time to time when I bend my wrist back too much, I feel practically nothing.  For now I’m just waiting on the blisters to go down and when it all starts to heal and I can start seeing some more progress, I will update again.  Even though it looks pretty nasty right now, I’m very excited and hopeful for what it is going to be in the end of this whole experience... GONE!  :)

             
              This was right after the laser
                   treatment was done...

A few hours later...

 

And this is what it currently looks like...

(It looks worse than it really is)

1st Week:

I was not expecting to do any pictures of comparison just yet.  I have been very pleased and amazed by the results though, so I did put a few together.  I see my tattoo every day, so I see every little change.  But there are some very apparent and visible fading already happening.  I think I’ve already been incredibly fortunate because I've only had some minor blistering, which have already gone down.  I’ve had some very insignificant itching occur, but I think that was mostly from the bandage irritating my skin at times.  It has started to scab over a little in a few places, but for the most part, it seems to be healing very nicely and quickly.  I’m really positive at this point that I won’t have to wait 5 more weeks.  Hopefully I can go back in 3 weeks for my second treatment.  5 weeks just sounds as if it’s forever away! I also really hope that every treatment goes this incredibly well.  Although, my luck, I probably just jinxed myself!  ;) 

At this point, I’m kind of thinking to myself that this is going a little too well. So I’m really trying to stay realistic and not get my hopes up about anything just yet! However, I can’t help but start getting a little excited from what I've seen already within the first week of the first treatment.

The pictures on the left are pictures I took right before my first treatment a week ago. The pictures on the right side are ones I took last night.   You can see that some of the thinner lines are extremely faded and are starting to resemble dashes rather than a solid line. Also there are some very obvious fading within the shaded areas.  Overall if you were to see the tattoo in person, it has started to look as if it’s quite old and dull. For this being the first treatment, I was not expecting much of a change, maybe a little fading, but nothing quite so noticeable yet.  These are pictures taken on my phone and in horrible lighting, so it doesn’t do it much justice either.  Also, some of the pictures you can see some dark yellow coloring around the tattoo.  Apparently I had a little bit of bruising and swelling, but it’s continuing to get better every day as well.

As soon as everything has healed up I will be sure and update again!   

Day 2...

     So far so good.  I've posted a couple of pictures that I took last night.  They're not the prettiest looking thing, but it's all part of the process.  Hopefully it can only get better. The good news is that the pictures look worse than it actually is.  I dont really feel anything.  I figured it would sting really bad in the shower, but I had no discomfort at all.  I can't wait to see it start healing up and slowly fade away.  Thats what I'm hoping for anyway.

1st Treatment!

It has been several hours since I had my 1st laser treatment.  Before I got there, I had been trying to prepare myself for the pain I was going to experience. And let me tell you, it’s totally different than what I was imagining. I’ve read that it would feel like a rubber band popping you or bacon grease splashing you.  I don’t know if it was because it was on my wrist or what, but for me it felt like little tiny hot needles. It was just weird. But it was actually better than what I had psyched myself up for.  Some places will put numbing cream on the area before hand or even give you injections for larger tattoos.  I just got an ice pack and cold air.  And still the pain was tolerable.  I don’t think the actual procedure was worse than getting the tattoo.  Just add some heat to it and that’s what it felt like to me. But for a few hours after, it definitely sucked!  My wrist was just very tender.  It was like a really bad sunburn.  It felt like when your sunburn is at that blistering stage.  Just super tender.  I can hardly feel anything now. But I hear that within the next day or so it should start the horrible itching phase.  Also I have noticed I’m already seeing some tiny little blisters!  I knew this was a major possibility, but I didn’t know I would get them so fast.  Oh well the sooner the better so they can hurry and heal. So all in all much better than I expected….today! We’ll see how day 2 goes.

I’m putting a few pictures of what my tattoo looked like right after the laser treatment and then a few hours later when it was just red and irritated.  Basically the laser has started to break up the large ink particles so that my body can naturally start getting rid of the ink.  So I don’t expect I’ll see any kind of fading for a couple of weeks.  And really probably not a whole lot of difference for the first few treatments.  The fact that my tattoo is less than 2 months old means it may be a little more stubborn too.  But the people at MEDermis are very confident that 8 treatments will be sufficient. This is a process that will take up to a year, so I just have to stay committed and patient!  So I guess I need to learn how to do this real quick! 

Next treatment is in 6 weeks.  Let the countdown begin!

Right after the laser treatment. Looks kind of gross...

 

           Few Hours Later. Just really red and sore. But I can feel something happening under my skin!! (Fingers crossed)


What was I thinking?

    

This is the question I was asking myself as I’m walking out of the tattoo parlor with my new tattoo all wrapped up.  Fresh body art permanently on my wrist!  FOREVER! It’s not that the tattoo was done poorly or is ugly to me, but after the fact, I quickly realized that this was not what I wanted to look at FOREVER!  Statistics show that around 16% of people who have tattoos completely regret getting them.  Roughly comes out to 1 out of every 6 people.  So while I don’t like admitting I’m now part of a “statistic”, I’d like to think my situation is a little different in the sense that most of these people that had regret, had it years later down the road.  I, on the other hand, regretted mine within hours!  I don’t think this makes the situation better; in fact it makes me feel just flat out dumb.  There are no excuses.  But if only one thing comes out of this whole experience I’m going though, I hope it’s that people will actually think twice before settling or making any big decision.  This is part of the reason for this Blog. The biggest reason though is for other people who feel the same way I feel, but don’t know about tattoo removal options.  Or they’re just plain scared and a skeptic just like me!   

So now what? Maybe if the tattoo was in a different location I could cope with this better. But it’s right in my face all of the time. For days I just wished that I would be able to wake up and this would all turn out to be a horrible dream. Surely I did not really just go through with this.  Surely I do not have to go the rest of my life staring at this tattoo on my wrist! Was there a way to undo what is meant to never be undone? This was my new mission. Rather than dwell on the mistake I had to find out if there was a solution. 

While I didn’t really believe at first that there was really a legitimate way to remove a tattoo, I still decided to amuse myself and do some searching. I found some very morbid and disturbing techniques, if that’s what you even really want to call them, but ultimately stumbled onto the most popular and proven effective way to remove a tattoo.  Laser Tattoo Removal! I’m still quite the skeptic even though I have been researching for almost 2 months now.  I had consultations at a few different facilities and ultimately decided on MEDermis Tattoo Removal Clinic in Dallas. 

Another reason for me doing this Blog is that while doing all this research I got very irritated because there’s not a lot of examples and information of real people going through the process. Of course websites have before and after pictures and tell how the laser works, but I was only able to find less than a hand full of real people documenting everything you don’t see on a clinics website.  This is definitely a journey, but for anyone who is adamant about erasing a mistake, this hopefully will be worth the commitment.  Also while researching; I got so tired of hearing, “Think Before You Ink” or "Didn’t you know that tattoos are forever?"  Which, yes, obviously this is great advice and what people should think about beforehand.  However, it's obviously too late to go back and redo anything if you’re asking for advice about tattoo removal.  Everyone makes mistakes, some are just more difficult to undo or make right.  And I know that for me this will be a very long, very unpleasant and quite expensive lesson to learn from!