Having my tattoo removed

Had my first laser surgery treatment yesterday to remove a small tattoo. This is a big deal for me, as I've had the thing on my arm for most of my life. The treatment went well (I think). It was a bit painful, kind of like getting sprayed with hot grease. But I just bit down on the complementary bullet they gave me and sweated out the whole 2-minute session. Immediately after the treatment, the area was white and swollen. My doctor put some cream on it that relieved most of the pain.

It's now 17 hours later and there's no pain or swelling. The entire tattoo turned pink, with some dark red spots that look like there was bleeding under the skin. But the original blue-black ink color is all gone. There are even some tiny areas that look completely clean, no pink or red--or tattoo.

I'm encouraged by these early results, but I know this is a slow process, taking many months and more laser sessions until the thing's completely removed. My next appointment is in 2 months.

Anyone else ever have this procedure ?

(For the technically minded : the laser was a Yag Q. Switched).
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I just had my 9th session. It is almost gone (also a small tattoo that I had for 20 years) but the irony will live forever.......$25 for the tattoo, +$3K by the time the treatments are finished. I am goiing to encourage my sons to consider the field of dermatology. There are generations of kids coming up now getting tats.

-Scott

navy_shave said:

Had my first laser surgery treatment yesterday to remove a small tattoo. This is a big deal for me, as I've had the thing on my arm for most of my life. The treatment went well (I think). It was a bit painful, kind of like getting sprayed with hot grease. But I just bit down on the complementary bullet they gave me and sweated out the whole 2-minute session. Immediately after the treatment, the area was white and swollen. My doctor put some cream on it that relieved most of the pain.

It's now 17 hours later and there's no pain or swelling. The entire tattoo turned pink, with some dark red spots that look like there was bleeding under the skin. But the original blue-black ink color is all gone. There are even some tiny areas that look completely clean, no pink or red--or tattoo.

I'm encouraged by these early results, but I know this is a slow process, taking many months and more laser sessions until the thing's completely removed. My next appointment is in 2 months.

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sphughes said:

I just had my 9th session. It is almost gone (also a small tattoo that I had for 20 years) but the irony will live forever....... $25 for the tattoo, +$3K by the time the treatments are finished. I am going to encourage my sons to consider the field of dermatology. There are generations of kids coming up now getting tats.

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"I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man with no tattoos." -- Jack Rudy, Master Tattoo Artist

sphughes said:

I just had my 9th session. It is almost gone (also a small tattoo that I had for 20 years) but the irony will live forever.......$25 for the tattoo, +$3K by the time the treatments are finished. I am goiing to encourage my sons to consider the field of dermatology. There are generations of kids coming up now getting tats.

-Scott

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Ouch ! The mistakes of youth can be painful...and expensive. I'm lucky, it only cost me about $125 per visit. But I hope I'll only have to do one more.

Nine sessions, must be a professional tattoo job. Mine was along the lines of a homemade gang tattoo. Small, but ugly. And bound to give the wrong impression.

Glad to hear yours is going away. What kind of physical reactions did you have? How do you know when you're ready for another session?

I remember when I was in college and I was "this" close to getting a tattoo. I was at a local bookstore and I overheard two guys talking the next aisle over. The one guy was saying how he was so sorry he ever got this tattoo in college and it was costing him thousands to have it removed. That was about all I needed to hear, and at a very opportune moment.

I appreciate tattoos and there are some styles that I like on others (and some not). I do not look down on anyone who has them, but some things are for some people and not for others. I have not had any significant enough life event that I feel I need a tattoo to commemorate, and that includes getting married and having kids.

Good luck on your procedure. Before pics and after pics when it is all done would be cool to see.

Dennis

The Doctor uses about a 4 month schedule for the procedure. He feels that the more time between treatments, the more positive the results. What they do when I arrive is to numb the area (upper arm under sleeve line) with lidocaine injections. They then alcohol swab the skin and place a piece of this stuff called Vigilon over the tat. He (or the intern) zap it with the Yag Ruby at a predetermined wattage 75-100 times covering the entire area. Then they apply tape over it (and the Vigilon) and send me on my way.

When the numbness wears off there is some ache but Tylenol takes care of it. Physically there is no adverse effects at all. The laser breaks up the ink under the surface and it is re-absorbed into the body. There is some blistering involved during the healing but that is to be expected with the burning that occurred.

The only issue that I have run into is that the area is a target for my 2 year old to grab. I think kids have an intuitive way of knowing where to grab you when you don't want to be grabbed. It is only tender for a couple days before I feel fine again.

I have 3 other tattoos that I have no intention of removing. This one was just inappropriate (a tattoo of a leaf with a distinctive pattern that is dried and smoked in some cultures) for me to try to explain to my kids. I figured it needed to go.

-Scott

Sooooo.....what you're saying is......you had a tat of a 'fatty'.

My father had some tattoo removal work done. The process involved injecting the tattoo site with some kind of solution that dispersed the ink. The only problem that he has encountered is the scarring. What was once coloured skin is now light scar tissue. Certainly be good to see pictures of post-laser treatment to compare the results.

More and more frequently, we see people having old tattoos (faded, poorly-cared-for during healing, or just plain "bad") removed, in order to "free-up" the space for larger, better tattoos; especially "sleeves".

Oftentimes it's not possible to do a cover-up on one of these tattoos, and "laser removal" is the only solution. I enclose the words in quotation marks, because even today's higher-powered lasers, as well as those covering different areas of the color spectrum, cannot remove all colors (and some colors, only partially).

So; if you're thinking about getting a tattoo, get a good one, and get it done by a good tattooist. I wouldn't get any "ink" from someone who is not fully-sleeved, himself. As a sticker over my tattooist's workbench reads: "Tattooing by the heavily-tattooed". Caveat emptor.

JBHoren said:

"I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man with no tattoos." -- Jack Rudy, Master Tattoo Artist

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I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet. So I asked him, "Hey, can I have your shoes?"

I love my ink. Just choose your art carefully and get it where you know it will never cause you a problem in your professional lives. All mine are islotated to my deltoids and my back. Mine are all very meaningful, and I don't regret them one bit.

Paul, Do you have a picture of what the tat looks like after the first procedure?


Is it possible to completely remove a tattoo?

JBHoren said:

So; if you're thinking about getting a tattoo, get a good one, and get it done by a good tattooist.

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Curiously enough, the high-quality professional tattoos are the hardest to remove. They can require up to 10 or more sessions. Single-color, India ink homemade tats come off after 1-4 sessions.


Tim,
According to my research, in most cases tattoos can be completely or almost completely eradicated. Again, from what I've seen, there is more success with homemade ones.

Here's your photo, Tim. This is my right forearm 24 hours after the first session. The tattoo was a faded blue-black (it's 40 years old). You can still see a speck of the original color on the left, though it was much darker before the procedure. As you can see, the laser turned the entire area red. It'll take a couple of months for that to heal and fade. Then I'll be ready for the next round.


BTW the redness is all under the skin. Laser light passes through the upper skin layers and pulverizes the ink without burning the skin on the surface.

I've got a couple tattoos. I don't really regret them, but they aren't important to me either. Thankfully, I was smart enough to have them placed discreetly, so most people don't even know I have one.

TimmyBoston said:

I've got a couple tattoos. I don't really regret them, but they aren't important to me either. Thankfully, I was smart enough to have them placed discreetly, so most people don't even know I have one.

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Very smart, indeed. I don't advise anyone getting a permanent tattoo, but if you must, one in a discreet location would be a good idea. In my case, I was barely a teenager when I had it done. Very dumb because a few, short years later I was a very different person and far away from the environment where such a tattoo was fairly common. I'm grateful the technology now exists to finally get rid of the thing.

I have a full sleeve that has taken many years to get as far as it has. I am very proud of my tattoos and would never have them removed. I do wonder sometimes how they will look when I'm an old man. Will the lines spread? Will the colours fade or mix together? Will it just look stupid?

Then I look at my arm and think to myself "Nah! Bollox! it's always gonna look good to me"

Your tattoo was your choice (unless you were drunk or forced into it) and I think people should keep them even if it's just a reminder to not get any more. I think cover ups are a great way of hiding bad tattoos and should be the first thought when you want to get rid of an existing piece. I was disappointed when my dad had one of his tattoos covered up with a swish new one as he didn't look like him anymore if you get what I'm saying.

There are cases where I think people are right to have their tattoos removed such as POWs and the like. People who want to rid themselves of a permanent memory of their life trials.

Obviously this is just my opinion and I'm not trying to start a flaming discussion

Horses for courses and all that

Cheers

Mat

PZBarber said:

Obviously this is just my opinion and I'm not trying to start a flaming discussion

Horses for courses and all that

Cheers

Mat

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I agree! I posted this because I feel comfortable here, and wanted to share what is a very big deal for me among friends. I have nothing against tattoos as such. They're just not for me.

navy_shave said:

Curiously enough, the high-quality professional tattoos are the hardest to remove. They can require up to 10 or more sessions. Single-color, India ink homemade tats come off after 1-4 sessions.

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Absolutely correct! Black is the easiest color for a laser to completely remove; all the more so, if it's a homemade tattoo. In any case, "black is black", and laser removal takes far-fewer sessions, and looks better in the end.

I have nothing against tattoo's. In the 70's I would take friends to TX so that they could get tattoo's (It wasn't legal in OK). I would sit in the shops for hours while they were getting theirs. I always wanted just one and I knew what I wanted but couldn't find a pic or drawing of what I wanted. I wanted to put it on my back so it would only be seen when I wanted..

Now the funny thing is ....30 years later I still wouldn't mind getting the same tattoo because it still has the same meaning to me..

But the interesting thing is...the guys who I would take..are now getting theirs removed. I asked them why and they don't like what they have. I think the problem was it was more spur of the moment than actually putting some thought in it like me.

I do have some friends that have had tattoos for years and still like what they have and they all say the same thing. They had really thought about what they wanted.

Now you do have to know something about me. I ride motorcycles with guys that are pretty hard core and of course they have a lot of tattoos. We also are now seeing a lot of guys acting hard core and getting a lot of tattoos. I just wonder what these young guys will think in a few years when the coolness of acting like a MC guy will be out of vogue!?