CampB

I'm still getting treated with Picosure. Now they have this boost thing which works wonders and apparently targets red ink too. I got my 6th treatment finished with the boost a couple of weeks ago. I'll post photos once I hit about 12 weeks after. :)

First winter in L.A.

Must.

Go.

Snowboarding.

with the storm and all.

Anyone down to go to Bear Mountain tomorrow?

I have my own gear, and a car, but no chains which are required now.

Ugh.

Hopefully I get some happiness before bed.

:o

LOL . i'm quite amused at how perceptive you are to how terrible that tattoo is. :) but it looks like it'll be pretty easy to cover up, though i'm no expert. ure def in the right place to get some cool ideas and direction. welcome!

welcome, welcome. i dont think all tattoos need to carry significance but if it's unsightly, i suppose cover-ups are in order. looking forward to seeing ur tattoos :)

wow, yeah, im still on the fence about picosure (I was just saying to mike above about the heal time and swelling/larger areas being treated). but what ive seen and heard from realself and other reviews im convinced its pretty dope. but if I were just going for coverup I wouldn't bother wasting the extra money. what is your endgame? competele removal? I might be wrong, but from my observations, qswitch is good for any fading for coverup procedure, where as a picosure might be the best for a complete removal?

yea, im going for complete removal of the sleeve, wrists, and neck. the neck is my biggest concern as it's really the only thing keeping me from a career in the US military. the sleeve - i just don't like anymore and the wrists could become a problem if the military adopts yet another new tattoo policy. bleh.

really nice traditional work @Hardsharpz welcome!

It sounds like it could be a mild allergic reaction to the tattoo ink. Does that hydrocortisone cream help? I would maybe see a dermatologist and get an opinion. At the very least, they could prescribe something that would help so you don't have to scratch your skin off.

yea, the cream does wonders. but never lasts long so i have to keep reapplying. it goes away after a while though.

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Maybe some sort of histamine reaction? My ankles do this now and again, but they will have raised spots, like along the outline of an area. Doesn't happen often, doesn't hurt and doesn't seem to cause any problems, so I just ignore it.

If it's super itchy tho and you're scratching till you bleed...yeah that sounds like a bigger deal and should probably be checked out.

yea, that's what happens to me - it doesn't hurt or anything and the outline got all puffy but it itched like hell.

the bloodiness just came from me being unaware of my scratching whilst i slept. eck.

sometimes, the stitches of the heart on my chest start to itch really badly and it raises. i put hydrocortizone on it calm it down. the tattoo's about 6 years old. anyone know why this happens? it doesn't happen often; just once in a blue moon. but still...

before i was getting my sleeve removed, it used to itch all the time - mostly when i was asleep and i would wake up with a bloody arm cuz i was scratching at it all night. the sleeve was less than a year old when it started itching when i moved from denver to vegas. maybe the sun? ...

thanks!

welcome @Maikel64 !

PC, Xbox, or PS ?

"i insisted my dr. to really burn this shit up (he had strongly advised against the settings i requested but i wouldn't have it any other way)" that made me crack up for some reason. thanks for sharing these pictures..

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those results look really good actually compared to the last pictures you posted. whether that would have happened with a qswitch who knows!

keke, yea - my dr. was a little annoyed at my persistence but i just really wasnt happy after the first session; real change happened after the second time.

he showed me some side by side pictures of ppl he's treated who had half their tattoos done with qswitch and the other half with pico and the difference was pretty mind blowing. made me glad i started with pico.

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Wow really like that poison tattoo , thats a shame you have to lose it :(

thanks! it was done by Adam Rosenthal at Th'ink Tank Tattoos in Denver, CO. she's so lovely. well... was...

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also, this time 'round, there was less frosting but the dr. said it's still reacting pretty well so we didn't go up although i think next time (which is in 8 weeks) we'll have to.

it's been about 24hrs since my last session and although i'm still hella swollen and red - i have very, very minimal blistering. yays.

update! @Mike Panic @YOMONEY

below are pictures after two pico sessions; right before going into my third session today.

laser time was considerably less this time considering all my shading's gone so there's less area to go over. really bummed about all the hyperpigmentation though.

so after being less than impressed with the results after my first session, i insisted my dr. to really burn this shit up (he had strongly advised against the settings i requested but i wouldn't have it any other way) so for my neck, he went from 3.7mm to 3.2 and 3.7 to 3.6 for my sleeve and wrists. results were amazing but left me with some scarring on my neck. so this time this is what we did:

neck: 3.5mm // 2.08 J/cm2 // 10 hz // 2 minutes

sleeve and wrists: 3.6mm // 1.96 J/cm2 // 10 hz // 27 minutes

total pulses: 2208

for the red on Poison's face and lips, we use YAG

you can probably tell the first photo is what my Lady looked like before i started treatments. :(

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Here's a good one of me before the epic back piece progress. Nothing better than canoeing and camping.

Bonus points to anyone who can point out why the canoe looks "off".

You guys look like a good crowd.

you guys are riding it backwards.

...

yes?

i started to post my laser journey under the "picosure" thread. i requested my doc to up the laser setting for my second treatment so even after two weeks, it's made a HUGE difference. pics will be posted at the six week mark before i go in for the third treatment.

@YOMONEY i had no idea this laser shit was gonna be such a burden and a discomfort. i expected a certain degree but this down right sucks on every level. i get sick looking at my own tattoos. i feel ya. but keep up. cant wait to see pics of your cover up!

@SStu @Mike Panic

hi guys,

finished my second session yesterday.

i let my doctor know about my healing process; about the blistering, etc and he said that's totally normal and that the blistering will lessen as we progress.

firing at 10hz, about 23K total pulses (but I'm not sure if that's including my neck).

my neck took about three minutes; sleeve = 36 minutes; wrists a few seconds (probably like 15 seconds total).

so it was about 39 minute session.

i know the before pictures are important for comparison (and the before pictures are with my dr, i don't have any personal ones) but i'll post pictures after six weeks from this second session i had and you guys can start seeing progress yourselves since the first session.

i'll report back in six weeks!

my second session is tomorrow.

my sessions are 6 weeks apart.

sorry i don't have a clear picture of what it looked like before the first laser session but it doesn't look much different except most of the shading has either disappeared or lightened (turned brown) and some of the thinner outlines of the lyrics (Korean) and thinner lines of the flowers have disappeared.

i will be asking the Dr. how fast the machine's going and time the session from the first zap to the last.

besides my sleeve, im also lasering a 2"x2.5" colored SJ Poison flash on the back of neck

and

a 1"x1.5" black chinese character on my wrist

and

a quarter sized outline of a chick on my other wrist.

really not looking forward to all the blistering again.

@SStu @Mike Panic

obnoxious stares - i couldn't care less.

little kids' stares in wonderment - i give 'em a wink.

great work! love that mermaid. welcome :)

rawr! welcome! looking forward to seeing some pictures!

Hi Ray :) welcome

i like ur insomnia series. i miss the dark room. WELCOME!

@CampB if you don't mind me asking.. where are you getting treated? I hard the pico sure laser isn't very easy to track down

hey reaperz.

Los Angeles, CA

Celebrity Laser Spa

Dr. Kaplan

I believe it's $80/SI with a $300 minimum. Because I'm getting a half sleeve done along with a 2"x2.5" tattoo on the back of my neck, I was priced $1,000/45 minute session but with a special they had going on for the month, I pay $750/45 min session with 10 sessions scheduled six weeks apart.

Hi, I have a couple ideas for my first tattoo, but I want to get some opinions first.

Miami Corn Snake ribbon- the Miami Corn Snake is silver/grey and red, perfect colors to represent type 1 diabetes. I had an idea to have the snake shaped to look like a ribbon. The grey/silver is the diabetes ribbon, and red for blood.

Crocodile: this is the crocodile Steve Irwin would draw on some autographs and is present on the Croc One research boat. I have a link to a picture of the boat, so the drawing can be seen. Steve Irwin means a lot to me, he is my hero and inspiration. I want to honor him with a tattoo, and this came to mind. I may add "Crikey" behind the crocodile, since that was the phrase he was known for and would allow the design to make more sense.

Rattlesnake and rose- a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake coiled in the S-position around a rose. I associate rattlesnakes with my struggles with diabetes, because I dreamt I was bitten by one (twice) in two dreams I had right before I was diagnosed in 2008. I love snakes, so I am not sure why exactly I dreamt that, but oh well.

King Penguin- on my right hip, because I was bitten by one.

*I will get a wolf eventually, but I have to find the right person to do a realistic wolf.

hi and welcome! :)

as shaun said - your first tattoo is a decision you should make on your own. i would go with something very personal, something that means a lot to you, something unique. that being said, i think the irwin's crocodile is a cool idea (i personally wouldn't add the "crickey" though).

see you around the forums! :)

With conventional laser, the full effect of the ink dispersal only is realized after 8+ weeks. Is that the same with this method?

I was told I should see some difference at six weeks which is why my sessions are scheduled six weeks apart. But as I mentioned earlier, the least dense areas, i.e. shading, disappeared right as soon as the laser went over it, before my first full session was over. After six days I'm still heavily swollen, red, and bruised so I'll post pictures at about the fifth or six week before I go in for my second session.

wow - how big is the piece? I have about 6 sessions in so far on two arm sections. 3 with traditional and 3 with pico on very recent and very dark black and grey work. it's definitely working, but a little slower than hoped. I think I am going to do 9 sessions total. paying $350 for about 20 minutes of laser time. trying to do a cover-up.

not very big. just a shoulder to elbow half sleeve. all black and grey. no color. I need it removed to qualify as a navy officer. then I have a small black tattoo on each wrist, then the sailor jerry Poison flash on the back of my neck. if it wasn't for that navy goal, I never woulda even thought about getting anything besides my sleeve lasered off.

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I paid $1200 for 4 sessions with the regular laser. I'll be very curious to see how much lightening you end up with after just 1 session (even though I don't have anything else I want lasered). Are you going to post before and after pictures, please?

sure, i'll post a pic of after my first session. right now, it's blistered to high hell and still swollen and bruised (my first treatment was last saturday). if i post a pic of what it looks now, i can guarantee people will vomit up what they've eaten for the past week. and actually, believe it or not, i dont have a full picture of what it looked like before i started treatment. so i'll put it in words what's improved.