Yo, bit of insight or thoughts needed

[chrisdallat]

Hi,

I'm Chris, 25 from ireland, I recent got my first tattoo, about 5 weeks ago in Bali, Indonesia, Its an anchor (i know cliche) which is the logo of the surf boardriders club i am a part of all my life. I also got 'Live By The Sea, Die By The Sea' written next to it. all pretty simple stuff, was happy with it, but decided i wanted to get something more to it, some shading to fill it out a bit. Anyhoo, had limited time before i head off to my job in france, so went to the next town to mine, found the first studio i went to couldnt do me within the time i had, so went to another which had an hour slot to fit me in.

So i showed him a pic, and the next day came back, expecting to get a decent result. so he drew a few lines here and there where he was gonna, shade, it sounded like he had a reasonable idea and i left him to it, asking him to leave it real light. so now im sitting here a few days later (going to france tomorrow) and i hate what he has done. its just crappy, i wouldve done a better job.

First idea was a coverup when i come back in 3 months, but then after having some time to think, i dont want to go for a big tattoo, and my mindset on tattoos has changed after this blunder and its scared me away from commiting to more tattoos because of it.

So the point is i want to get the shading lazered off, or at least lightened to the point where they are barely visible. There are no 'black outlines' to the shading obviously, and i still want to keep the original anchor and text because its discrete enough and its actually grown on me more after an iffy start. I will post a picture below, but my question is, do you think i should be able to achieve decent results on the shading within just a few (1-3) laser sessions using the YAG lasers.

This is due to me arriving home end of september and probably having to leave again at the beginning of december, so limited time to have laser done before i leave the country again.

so obviously, its still a little darker than i expect it to be due to to it being only 3 days after the actually shading was done. and i will be spending the whole summer in the sun in france as a surf instructor (topless, so lots of sun on it), which could possibly fade it. do you think there is hope for me, because im am pretty gutted right now about the whole situation and now i gotta deal with a full 3 months with it on display when im pretty embarassed with it.

Hope somebody has a bit of good news for me :/

Cheers for listening to my shit situation, and I still hope to stay a member of the forums, for future hopefully less mistake laden tattoo ventures.

Chris

[Scott R]

first welcome, second IMO having had a fair amount of laser I think 1-2 sessions of laser would make it easy to cover with waves or a better idea to ad to the piece.

@Mike Panic is a laser guy aswell as @jinxproof i would search their names in this forum and read their posts.

When you get back to Ireland hit up @ross nagle at Allstar in Limerick he would have killed your idea from jump

[chrisdallat]

Thanks for the input, im actually not looking to cover it with anything now, this has made me realise i dont want to have big tattoos, just to keep it simple small and discrete. so basically im hoping just to get rid of the shading all together or as much as i can in as few sessions as i can, due to the limited time i have at home and the fact i dont make a lot of money :/ you think it would be reduced reasonably in 2-3 sessions to the point where its barely visible?

- - - Updated - - -

also im as far away from limerick as you can go in ireland haha, but thanks for the rec

[Mike Panic]

Broadly speaking here: shading fades very fast with someone of your skin type. I'd expect most of it to be gone within 2-3 treatments, however it could take 5, maybe 6, depending on a number of factors (your immune system, pigment used, artists skill level of actually tattooing you, etc.)/ It's also very possible to keep the anchor and writing, while selectively treating the ink around it.

My advice, don't let the sun fade it. It will naturally, but not in one summer, and if it does fade your tattoo it's doing a good deal of damage to your skin as a whole. You need to be healthy and keep your skin in tip-top shape pre-treatment and post-treatment. This means staying hydrated and applying liberal amounts of sunscreen on a regular basis every single day it's exposed to the sun. You're better off with a solid start.

[chrisdallat]

Thats great to hear, I only want to get rid of the shading, there is a gap of about 3mm or so between the shading and the stuff i want to keep pretty much consistently so i hope that it can be removed without touching the text or anchor if possible. I will take your advice on the keeping it out of the sun then, should be reasonably easy due to it being inner bicep, normally doesn't get much sun on it naturally. how much as a guide would you say it would cost for an area of the size of this shading? i know not easy to guess from a photo, but an estimate would be great.

also in the time frame i have between my summer job and my winter job i would maximum have enough time to get in 2-3 sessions from what i have heard about the waiting periods between, so i would hope that would be enough to see a near disappearance of this, and then if necessary could have another few after the winter just before going back into summer.

[Killercook76]

actually your tattoo with fade a bit in about 2 to 3 months. All my tattoos (black part) fades from super black to grayish black. I would wait until then..

[chrisdallat]

thats good to know, but either way the shading has to go, in my opinion it looks terrible and i dont want it on my arm, the rest is fine, not perfect looking, but at least it means something to me, the shading just makes me depressed everytime i see it on my arm :/

[Mike Panic]

how much as a guide would you say it would cost for an area of the size of this shading? i know not easy to guess from a photo, but an estimate would be great.

I'm here only as someone who shares info, I don't sell my services. Google your city + tattoo removal, you should find plenty of places. Most places charge per square inch, typically from $49-99, some charge per minute the machine is running- usually $99/ minute, some are flat rate business models.

[chrisdallat]

Hey guys, been a while since this, came home after summer, looked into Laser and then decided fuck it, ill just book in with an artist and see what he can do, i drew over it a few times myself and decided that it would work with a banner and a rose/leaves to cover up the rest (i know cliché, but it works) and the artist said it would work no worries.

Still a bit of the original shading stuff showing through here and there around the bottom mostly but apart from that im pretty happy with it. thinking should maybe continue the darker shading right up around the anchor instead of leaving that kinda empty white border around it, because it throws it off for me. but other than that, wayyyy happier than before. still gotta lighten up a bit i guess, just done 3 weeks ago.

Edit: exposure on the pic went a bit nuts, the banner and are around isnt quite so white, there is shading in there, but you can see pretty much what its turned out like as a coverup anyways.

Also being the OCD son of a bitch that i am, the area behind the anchor is really getting to me, think more stuff needs to be behind there to settle it into the complete piece, still feels kinda seperated from the rest. maybe some more leaves or something behind it.

[gougetheeyes]

Also being the OCD son of a bitch that i am, the area behind the anchor is really getting to me, think more stuff needs to be behind there to settle it into the complete piece, still feels kinda seperated from the rest. maybe some more leaves or something behind it.

Get a brand new tattoo somewhere else -- then you'll stop obsessing!

[chrisdallat]

Thats what ive been thinking haha, sadly have no time in the near future, plus as a surfer its pretty damn hard to time tattoos right so that you dont miss time in the water >:(