To laser or not..

[lving4today]

Got this done when I was 18 and it's been a battle of it bugging me every day due to it's flaws. It was touched up when I got the inside done, but poseidons anatomy is off in certain places and some of the old purple was hard to rework, so it's obvious to me anyway. Would lasering it even help since its not exactly faded and got some heavy black? Or should I just get more well-done tattoos to distract the fact and just chalk it up to lesson learned?

[gougetheeyes]

Get more tattoos!

[lving4today]

I'm leaning more towards that seeing as how it COULD be way worse... but could have been way better too.

[Scott R]

Man thats a tough call it bugs you alot is big but isnt a bad tattoo, I am lasering worse lol

[lving4today]

Lol, yea I lack the funds now anyway, but it'll probably look better with better tattoos near it. I get compliments on it and stuff, but after seeing this site and so many good artists putting out good work, i just wish I had saved that big space. Oh well.

How big are the pieces you're lasering?

[Scott R]

shoulder to shoulder i have a thread few below this one.

[russ f]

I think that if you lasered it you'd find the black would go fairly quickly but the green, blue & purple would take a while and possibly not go at all. You may be able to get it lightened enough for a cover up but probably will be fairly expensive.

I'm having my upper arm lasered at the moment for a cover up, had two sessions so far...the black is going super fast but the red will be a few more sessions I reckon.

[ian]

I think that if you lasered it you'd find the black would go fairly quickly but the green, blue & purple would take a while and possibly not go at all. You may be able to get it lightened enough for a cover up but probably will be fairly expensive.

I'm having my upper arm lasered at the moment for a cover up, had two sessions so far...the black is going super fast but the red will be a few more sessions I reckon.

Have you taken any pix of your progress?

[russ f]

Yeah here you go, the pic on the left is before any lasering and on the right is after two sessions. I think that I'll need possibly another 4/5 sessions until it's light enough to cover.

[lving4today]

Yea that fucking purple is a nuisance. Hard to cover, and just as likely, hard to remove. I'll probably just leave that arm alone until a proper decision can be made. Maybe by that age/sun will have done enough to make lasering a better choice.

[Benjamin Karner]

Anyone can pick apart any tattoo if they spend enough time staring at it. Just get more work so you have more to look at, and have less to worry about what is already done.

[lving4today]

Anyone can pick apart any tattoo if they spend enough time staring at it. Just get more work so you have more to look at, and have less to worry about what is already done.

That's true. Especially as of lately, my OCD is kicking in and staring too much at 'em. Good thing I'll have something new to look at today

[Janine]

I would just get more ink. I have a tattoo that I don´t like very much and have attempted laser removal and with colorful tattoos this could take years and thousands of dollars to remove and might still not be completely gone. I gave up and did a cover up on it which I am also not very happy with but it is much better than it was before and I am also thinking about getting more tattoos so it´s not the first thing people look at.

[scott]

I can't see the image? but +1 on the getting more work! In for a penny in for a pound and all that.

[Hogrider]

Hey.......I am going to remove my tattoo and I am really confused which treatment should I choose ? Please give me some solution for it. Thanks in advance.

Hey.....I just want complete information about tattoo removal method. Is their any side effect of this treatment. Can anyone help me. Looking forward for your reply.

I found the Laser method to be the best among all the tattoo removal methods. I have tried it and there was no side effect of it. Thanks.

Let's see, first you are confused, then you want to know all about it, then you know all about it. Why don't you just post your shitty site now and get it over with. You sign up with a name like DrTatooff and get in on tattoo removal threads, you just have to be spamming. And by some strange coincidence, there is a site called Drtatooff!

Maybe you could change your screen name to DrJerkoff.

[taylorspinney]

So green and red are among some of the most difficult to remove? I am dealing with a tattoo on my chest that I want gone enough to do a cover up and unfortunately it has green around it. Damn.

[Mike Panic]

So green and red are among some of the most difficult to remove? I am dealing with a tattoo on my chest that I want gone enough to do a cover up and unfortunately it has green around it. Damn.

You're half right. Red, along with black fades the fastest and usually has the best reaction to laser treatments. It's not that green (blue & yellow too) are more difficult to remove, they just might take more sessions. If your goal is to cover though, just getting the green light should do the trick.

I'd say right now about 75-80% of my business is lightening tattoos for people to either get them covered, or to hide them inside a much larger piece because the original tattoo is now in "prime real estate". Perhaps where I differ from the other med-spa places out there is that I actually encourage you to keep an open dialect going with your tattoo artist through the whole process. I'll tell you to stop in 3-4 weeks after a treatment with your artist and discuss your future tattoo, and he or she will tell you if it would be helpful to get 1, 2 or 5 more treatments based on the level of fading you currently have. I work with a ton of shops in my area because of this mutual respect. For my clients who are getting cover-ups, my goal is for them to get the best possible tattoo that THEY want, not the tattoo that will best cover or hide the original piece. Far too often people end up with large dark-belly owls, roses, lotus and sunflowers because it's easy to hide old tattoos inside, sadly that's usually not what the person wants.

[bulldog]

So green and red are among some of the most difficult to remove? I am dealing with a tattoo on my chest that I want gone enough to do a cover up and unfortunately it has green around it. Damn.

You need to find somewhere with a ruby laser.

[Mike Panic]

You need to find somewhere with a ruby laser.

Not entirely true, a q-switched yag is a super efficient machine. After spending a lot of time talking with what I think are about the only honest people left in the medical field, the field techs, I've had my eyes opened to some realities. The ruby laser is being pushed pretty hard, both to consumers and sales reps. Mostly, what's happening is many med-spa's are a child company or sister company to a plastic surgeons office, and thus they have no problems with cash flow. That said, once you buy a yag, you're pretty much setup for a few years, unless you need to buy another one due to volume, a problem I'd LOVE to have haha. Sales reps don't see return commissions, the units just last and last and run. The ruby operates at one specific wave length, and thus is very effective for specific tones. Otherwise, it's pretty much a one-trick pony.

Sales reps started marketing it to med-spas with cash over-flow issues since it's a great end-of-year tax write-off, and the spa's can then in turn say to their clients, "well their client, we have two lasers, one that does most of the heavy lifting and this here special one that you NEED to have used because of that there color you have in your tattoo." It's working, because I hear it in person and on forums a lot. Ironically, those who are talking about it don't know the wavelength that typically is run for most all tattoo removal, or that of the ruby. That's proof enough people are buying into the marketing aspect of things.

[hogg]

You're half right. Red, along with black fades the fastest and usually has the best reaction to laser treatments. It's not that green (blue & yellow too) are more difficult to remove, they just might take more sessions. If your goal is to cover though, just getting the green light should do the trick.

I'd say right now about 75-80% of my business is lightening tattoos for people to either get them covered, or to hide them inside a much larger piece because the original tattoo is now in "prime real estate". Perhaps where I differ from the other med-spa places out there is that I actually encourage you to keep an open dialect going with your tattoo artist through the whole process. I'll tell you to stop in 3-4 weeks after a treatment with your artist and discuss your future tattoo, and he or she will tell you if it would be helpful to get 1, 2 or 5 more treatments based on the level of fading you currently have. I work with a ton of shops in my area because of this mutual respect. For my clients who are getting cover-ups, my goal is for them to get the best possible tattoo that THEY want, not the tattoo that will best cover or hide the original piece. Far too often people end up with large dark-belly owls, roses, lotus and sunflowers because it's easy to hide old tattoos inside, sadly that's usually not what the person wants.

This is a really great post. Thanks, @Mike Panic!

[TNBradley]

I have heard alot of people say that they didnt have a hard time healing there lasered tattoos. Man, it was hard on me. I had massive blisters, like an inch tall, no kidding. I limped around for like three weeks. That was about three years ago and they still seem to be getting lighter. I am dragging my feet on doing it again.

[Mike Panic]

I have heard alot of people say that they didnt have a hard time healing there lasered tattoos. Man, it was hard on me. I had massive blisters, like an inch tall, no kidding. I limped around for like three weeks. That was about three years ago and they still seem to be getting lighter. I am dragging my feet on doing it again.

That blows. Blisters happen for a variety of reasons, some could be blamed on the tech / Dr. who set the laser up, some may have to do with your immune system and some may have to do with what was used in the pigments you were tattooed with. The sad truth is, without FDA regulation, tattoo pigment is made of some kind of scary stuff. As it sits in your skin, it really doesn't do anything positive or negative, just like a birth mark. When you laser it though, those pigment particles fracture into much smaller pieces that the immune system can dispose of - that's where you start to run into issues with how your body processes those, and what those particles are actually made of.

[ColdBlue]

I'm in a similar situation, I have quality work that i'm just really not 100% happy with. It's bothering me to the point that i've heavily researched options for removal and met with a local tech, such a toss up, a decision i'm not taking lightly, it's driving me nuts.

[Jessica08]

I made a bad decision to get my small tattoo lasered. I went to two sessions, and then quit. I developed scar tissue in the shape of the small cross on my wrist. I decided to get it fixed which I finally did yesterday after 1 1/2-2 years from my last laser session. I even put Mederma on it to flatten it out a little. I did this for 4 months or so. You can still see the outline of the other cross in the middle of the bigger cross. I'm praying that after it heals, it won't be as noticeable. If only I could go back in time and just get it redone instead of trying to remove it...

[Nacho Sauce]

I'm having this same dilemma. I was 18 years old and in party mode. Got a huge graffiti piece on my arm. Extremely noticeable especially while working which is annoying. I can feel people judging me to the point where It drives me insane. So I've thought about removal, but what i'm reading is that purple and green are very difficult and sometimes it will never go away. My tattoo is black outlined lettering and shaded purple. Then the background is green, i'm 22 years old and so far it's not even faded at all from sun exposure. I'm really thinking it can't be removed.

Not sure what to do.... I might be forced into keeping it forever.... Yikes I should have thought for the long run of career wise. I've been turned down at jobs because my graffiti looks gang related but really it's just art graffiti not gang related at all. Such a hard decision on what to do. I should have got it on my back or something where it's not noticeable.