In 2017 I began the process of getting two tattoos removed with Picosure laser tattoo removal technology.
Mom was right. Of course I knew she was all along. I got my first tattoos when I was 18. Well, the first one was just shy of my 18th birthday, so I felt all sorts of cool and rebellious for being a tattooed 17-year-old. That one was a floral design on the top of my foot, which was actually a quite beautiful and well-done tattoo. I started to dislike it when I realized it just looked like a big tacky blob on my foot, especially when I was dressed up.
The second was a bow on my wrist. While the bow bears a lot of meaning to me, I got it done at a terrible tattoo parlor and even getting it fixed by a better artist didn’t help much. I pretty much never liked this tattoo and always kept it as covered up as possible.
Over the years I’ve gotten 3 more tattoos, all of which are small and pretty hidden.
Even though I never truly hated my tattoos, over the past year I started looking into removal options just for the heck of it. When I discovered the newer technologies (PicoSure) that make the process quicker and less damaging (scarring), I started to get more serious about the idea.
Through my research – along with the help of good ol’ Momma G – I found Dr. Anna Avaliani. I reached out to her office by email and got a nearly immediate response. A few days later I went to their (beautiful) NYC office for my consultation.
At my consultation Dr. Avaliani examined my tattoos, reviewed my medical history, and gave me the full 411 on what the tattoo removal would look like. Since I had the tattoos for quite a while and they both had color in them, she let me know that it could take 8-10 sessions (every 8 weeks) for them to go away completely. Since I had already gotten this far, I decided I was up for the challenge.
A few days later I went back for my first treatment. The good news: I was in and out of the office in under 20 minutes. The laser process took just about 10 minutes (for both tattoos).
The bad news: it hurt. Like hell.
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t painful…especially considering both of my tattoos are on very sensitive areas. What REALLY helped, though, is that throughout the entire process Dr. Anna uses a machine that blows ice cold (we’re talking freezing) air on the area at the same time, which helps numb a lot of the pain. Almost immediately after the laser treatment is done, the pain is completely gone. This is what it looked like right after, still “frozen:”
The healing process has been pretty easy. My wrist saw barely any effects other than the noticeable fading. My foot, I’m assuming since the skin is so thin, experienced a lot of large blistering. I kept it lathered in vaseline and covered for the first few days when I had to wear shoes, but let it “air out” as much as I could otherwise.
And now for the most important part…the results! These are my results from just one treatment of PicoSure tattoo removal. The “after” photos were taken 1 day after the treatment. There was a lot more blistering on my foot in the coming days (but none on my wrist).
February 16 2017:
I am VERY happy with these results. I wasn’t expecting to see so much fading after one treatment, and it made the brief pain totally worth it. I almost can’t wait to get it again, haha!
UPDATE – April 15 2017:
The results from this session aren’t as noticeable, but I can definitely tell a difference. My foot is still recovering and a bit red, but I can tell the the pink in the flowers is faded more (which is good because color ink “sticks” more than black ink does). I experienced a lot less blistering this time too, thank goodness!
Here’s a quick video look at the process from my 2nd session (via my Instagram Story).
UPDATE – July 2 2017:
These are the updated photos from my last (3rd) treatment on June 2nd. Once again the fading isn’t quite as noticeable as my first session, but we’re getting there! There’s definitely been a lot of fading in the black ink on both my foot and wrist.
UPDATE – September 18 2017:
These are the before/after pix from my 4th treatment on August 11th. I’ve been waiting a little longer to share them on this post because I notice more and more fading as the time goes by! You’ll notice there is still some redness on my foot. It took a bit longer to heal this time, I think because Dr. Avaliani went a little stronger on it.
UPDATE: January 25, 2018
I accidentally skipped my 5th session update, but here are the results after the 6th removal session that took place on December 11 2017. Don’t mind my gnarly foot on the left, I had just taken off my shoes 😛 As I’ve noticed throughout this whole process, my wrist tattoo is definitely fading more quickly than my foot. This last session definitely faded the bottom flower on my foot a lot, and I can’t believe my wrist bow is becoming barely noticeable!
**********
I’m going to continue to update this post regularly with photos after each treatment. Here’s to hoping it’s only a few more! 😉
