glow-on

Darn, that's a 7hr drive. Might be one of my favorite tattoos I've ever seen though. Congrats on having it!

Holy hell that's gorgeous. Very good to know. Do you mind if I ask what city this artist is located?

Thanks for your input! Since I'm considering a cover-up, I will have to do at least a few laser sessions anyways, so I'll definitely need to do a lot more research. The place I considered originally has a PicoWay. I'd be open to hearing opinions on different lasers. Mine is mostly shading with very light line work - artist specifically said she was using very light touch and there was such little pain I felt like I could have taken a nap. I'm hoping that might help reduce the number of sessions needed to fade. I have another tattoo with heavier line work, and that one felt like a razorblade slicing through the skin the whole time. After 10 years it looks very much the same. I'd say the line work on that one is at least twice as thick. Never regretted that one, always loved it, but then again it has a lot of significance as my late mother had a matching one. It's interesting but not surprising to hear that you had a different response to the laser on different body parts. I wonder if it's just increased circulation in different areas, or if it's more complicated than that? Of course I would love to be one of the very lucky few who do get almost complete removal (keyword almost), but my expectations have thankfully been lowered. I at one point strongly considered a chest piece but decided against it. I wouldn't be broken hearted to end up with them, after all I like them enough to have considered it for years, but since I ultimately decided against it, I'd obviously slightly prefer to not. It's anyone's guess why I went with that positioning this time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yeah I'm fine with that. I'll let myself sleep on the whole thing for a few months. Would be nice to get full chest anyways if I end up with gnarly scar down my ribcage. I think it will be like 5-6 inches of scar so definitely want to wait until afterwards. Thank you guys for saving me 2500 bucks and probably a lot of frustration and sadness.

I appreciate everyone in this thread who is trying to help. I'm starting to be convinced by you that it's indeed not possible for full removal, but I'm mostly interested in fading for coverup at the moment. I'm sure there are some cases where people get close to full removal - my father actually did that (not 100%, more like 95%). And yes there is absolutely nothing wrong with this tattoo. Its beautiful and the artist did an incredible job. I just didn't check stencil well enough and it ended up being a raven head on mourning dove body, and I happen to have negative association with doves, so that's a big part of my feeling bad about it. Not going to go into details there, it's just not "me" and it reminds me of someone I don't want to think about. I'm sure some understand where I'm coming from. At the end of the day it's not a big deal, it's just body art and it's objectively pretty and well executed. Of course I would love to do something so that I love it and it feels like "me". I hope I didn't make anyone here think I was ignoring your comments - I am reading everything and taking it all in and trying to make an informed decision, and ultimately I do more heavily lean on the opinions of good samaritans than a salesperson. Of course. What is the concesus of all of you regarding a few sessions to fade for cover ups?

Yes I'm considering a cover-up. I'm not sure if I'm convinced one way or the other if full removal is possible, but I'm not counting on it. Currently this is what it looks like under normal clothing: https://imgur.com/a/ano00yi so you can probably understand why I'm feeling underwhelmed. It's not the tattoo artists fault, I should have considered how weird it would look under a shirt. I have a chest wall deformity so I'm not 100% sure if a full chest piece will work for me currently, but I am potentially getting chest wall surgery if I qualify (waiting for testing currently). 95% sure I'll qualify and 25% sure I'll have the balls to go through with it. Really that's only relevant to my decision to purchase a package deal or not. Essentially would be 200 bucks a month for a year for unlimited PicoWay. Trying my best to make the right choice, but world is full of salesmen and naysayers so it's always a challenge with this kind of thing. Edit: I mean I'd pay 200 bucks a month for a year, the unlimited PicoWay would continue as long as needed. Wording came out weird.

I've done a lot more research and consideration since I posted this yesterday and I'm feeling much much better about going through the removal process. I'm going to wait two months for healing and see how I feel when the time comes, and if I still don't like it I'm going to start the removal process. I'm not normally as on edge and skeptical as I was yesterday, but anxiety and paranoia come in waves, some waves are bigger than others.

Thanks for replying. Yeah I think tattoo regret is partially at play here. A lot of it has to do with the circumstances - I didn't get a chance to plan or think about it.

Also I'm not finding any threads regarding this specific topic. Maybe I'm using the search function incorrectly.

Thanks for your input. I have no concerns with tattoos, just the removal. I feel that my concerns are valid, though I freely admit to having anxiety. I'll head over to Initiation page, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I am interested in removal for a tattoo I got less than a week ago. Obviously I have to wait more time for it to completely heal before beginning, if I do decide to go through with laser removal. I'm not concerned about the pain or possible skin irritation, just the systemic health effects. My biggest concern about laser tattoo removal has to do with all of the unknowns - the safety of the ink, what they contain, what do they decompose into when irradiated, do they ever get cleared from our lymphatic system, etc. Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4411590/ https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=6487