So finally, after about 3 years, my “little” project is nearly finished! I’ve written about my tattoo removals earlier. As many others have said, I wouldn’t go through it again, but it was definitely worth it. I was never proud of this and for most of the time tried to hide my half-vanished tattoos, but as there are many others who are struggling with the same issue, I want to share my experience here.
Originally I had three gold fish tattooed on my arm. They were nicely done and everything, but felt too big and just didn’t suit my style. So I just felt that I had to do something about them, i.e. remove them. As I wrote on the previous post, I tried everything. YAG laser, Picosure laser and finally, Tatt2away. Most of the colors vanished quite fast, just some yellow was left, which would be easy to cover with new tattoo. Although black is supposed to be the easiest color to remove, it only came of partially with the lasers. Tatt2away took a lot of it out, however it did leave scars. As I’ve never had keloids or anything, I wasn’t too worried about it, they would most likely fade over time. And they did.
So I’ve now had most of the old picture covered with a new one. It’s a peacock, that matches better my colorful style and existing tattoos. I had it done at Kajaste art in Tallinn, Estonia. They’ve specialized in realistic tattoos and do really great work. I’ve previously had my feet tattooed there, so I knew what to expect. I’m going to do a one more session for adding some feathers to cover the rest of the old tattoo in June. But already now I’m really happy with the result.
The bigger and more painful project, yet, less visible was my rib piece. The picture above is after two sessions: the lines and some coloring. I had it done at LR tattoo in Helsinki, as I really like the style they do. And due to the painfulness of the spot I don’t want anything realistic that takes a long time. The picture below after three sessions with more color. I had my fourth session a bit over week ago and still waiting it to be fully healed. The next session should be the last one.
I’ve used a numbing cream called TKTX before the tattooing begins and a liquid called super juice during tattooing. It’s been a big help as the tattoo is on a really sensitive area and after all the lasering just the idea of needles on the area feels horrible. But with the right numbing stuff the pain is tolerable.
These might be my last larger tattoos. I’ve done a few smaller ones during the removals, including the jigsaw puzzle and the text you can see on my forearms. So I still like tattoos, and feel that they’re a part of who I am, a way to express myself and things I like. But with about 15 of them, I think I now have all the ones I’ve wanted. I’ll post another update after my cover-ups are complete to show the final result.
The video is in Finnish, but I write in English as usually. So finally, I’m done with all my tattoo removals! They couldn’t be removed completely, but the colors faded enough, so I can get nice cover-ups on them. The tattoos were rather big, one on my arm and one on my ribs/belly so it was a lot of ink. I started this process about two and a half years ago, so it’s been a long and painful journey, but I’m happy I did it. I never took proper before and after pictures, as this was something I wanted just to be done with and push it out of my head. But as many of us are today dealing with unwanted tattoos, I wanted to share my experience here.
Plastic Surgery Center – Helsinki
I had moved back to Finland from Asia a couple of months before I started the removals. I looked into the options in Helsinki, and ended up at a place called Plastic Surgery Center in Helsinki. I went there about eight times and my tattoos did fade almost as planned. The colors from the one on my arm disappeared almost completely just after a couple of sessions, except for the yellow color, which is hard to remove, but on the other hand, easy to cover with a new tattoo. The black outlines also didn’t disappear.
My arm with the fresh tattoo, it was nicely done, but just wasn’t my style after all.After all the sessions at Plastic Surgery Center, colors almost gone, just outlines left.My belly after a few sessions… Can’t remember how many, but definitely faded, though there was still a lot of ink left.
Eraze – Stockholm
I moved to Umeå Sweden in August 2015 and wasn’t sure how and when I would continue the process. As I was also having my orthodontics done, I ended up going to Stockholm for both, getting my braces adjusted and my tattoos removed. As there’s no Picosure laser available in Finland, but there’s one in Stockholm I decided to try that. At this point, it was quite obvious that the tattoos wouldn’t fade completely, so I only got the black parts lasered, as there was very little color left and that would be easy to cover. Also, getting lasered hurts quite a bit, so I rather had it lasered less than more. I went to Eraze twice and I think there was some fading, but it wasn’t that clear. Before and after photos, again would have helped, but I didn’t take any. As the fading happens slowly, and when there’s less ink it becomes less obvious so at this point, I couldn’t really see it. But when looking at the pictures below, taken about eight months apart from each other, there’s some fading at least.
Estetic Walk-in Umeå
I had been in Finland for the holidays and wasn’t planning to have trip to Stockholm anytime soon, so I decided to give a try for a local plastic surgery place. I only had my arm lasered, as I was tired of all the pain, which was far worse on the ribs than on the arm, so I went. After the session my arm was very, very burned… It healed quite fast, as always with lasering, but it looked so ridiculous I decided to stop having it lasered. I guess the colors faded a little bit, as always, but at this point the change wasn’t as evident as after the first sessions so my motivation was gone.
Morning after. I was so scared the blisters would explode.
Tatt2away
This was also something not available in Finland, but in Stockholm. Since Swedes are the most tattooed people in the world after some tribal populations, there’s for sure a demand for removal methods as well. So as I didn’t see much difference after my Picosure sessions, I wanted to try the third, and last option available. Though my tattoos had faded enough for pretty good cover ups already, I still wanted to see if I could do more. So I went to a tatt2away consultation. I was told that as my tattoos had been lasered, the risk for scarring would be much higher, as laser does damage your skin and after my latests lasering session the lines on my arm were already swollen and the skin was damaged. I’ve never gotten cheloids or anything and all the scars I had gotten in the past had healed well, so I wasn’t too worried about it. But if you consider tatt2away, you definitely should be aware of the risks involved, we’re all different and I’ve seen some pretty horrible pictures of the results.
Tatt2away hurts. It hurts a bit less than getting tattooed, and is faster than tattooing, but it takes longer than lasering and how your skin looks afterwards is nothing pretty. I do pole dancing and was trying to hide my arms and ribs until the scabs were gone, but it was difficult. The healing process also takes much longer than with laser, about 14 days for the scabs to form and fall off and then a few months for your skin to get back to normal, if it goes back to normal in the first place. Tatt2away worked pretty well on my arm, and some of the black lines were gone completely, in some parts they just faded a bit, but it definitely did something. On my belly it didn’t work that well, but the tattoo was already faded enough for a cover up anyway. I got two sessions done on my arm and after the second one I got two small scars, but I’m sure they’ll fade away with time. I’m planning to get a cover up on my arm next spring. You can see the current state of my arm on the video.
What I’ve learned?
My tattoos were tough, they faded but none of the methods removed them completely. However, I’m happy with the results. It was more of an issue for me at the beginning, but I guess at some point I just stopped caring. It might be because I’m a couple of years older now and looks just don’t matter that much anymore. At the end it’s just skin, it’s not that big of a deal and at least I’ve been well besides this mess. As many others have said, I wouldn’t go through this again, but it’s definitely been worth it and I might like my picture a little bit more when looking in the mirror. The thing that’s been bugging me sometimes is people asking me about my tattoos. No one has judged me, but it’s been kind of boring to explain over and over what I’ve done and why. Though I understand their curiosity, especially if they’re considering tattoo removals themselves. And that’s why I wanted to share this here.
Tasan kaksi vuotta takaperin otin käsivarteen suht ison kultakalatatskan. Siitä ei tullut ihan sitä, mitä olin halunnut, mutta yritin parin kuukauden ajan uskotella itselleni, etä pidän siitä. Sitten eräänä päivänä sain tarpeekseni ja päätin poistattaa sen. En ole aktiivisesti dokumentoinut prosessia, koska en ole tästä erityisen ylpeä. Halusin nyt kuitenkin jakaa kokemukseni, koska tää asia koskettaa nykyisin valitettavan monia ja olen itsekin etsinyt aktiivisesti muiden jakamia kokemuksia tatuoinninpoistosta. Tatuointi oli ihan siististi tehty, mutta isompi ja ei ihan sen tyylinen, kuin mitä olin halunnut. Mulla on kyljessä toinen tatuointi, jota on myös laseroitu, mutta siitä lisää mahdollisesti myöhemmin. Yhteensä tatskoja mulla on noin kymmenen. Tähän asti sekä käsi, että kylki on laseroitu aina samalla kertaa, tänään kävin laseroimassa vain käden, koska haluan sen nyt ensin pois. Keskityn kylkeen sitten myöhemmin.
Tatuointi ennen poistamisen aloitusta.
Kävin Suomessa Plastic Surgery Centerissä noin kahdeksan kertaa, värit lähti melkein kokonaan, mutta ääriviivat jäi selvästi näkyviin. Tarkoituksena on ottaa peitekuva kunhan viivat haalistuu vähän lisää.
Muutin Ruotsiin viime syksynä ja pidin parin kuukauden tauon laseroinnista. Kävin sen jälkeen kaksi kertaa Tukholmassa Eraze- nimisessä paikassa. Niillä on käytössä Picosure-merkkinen laseri, joka on ainakin tarinan mukaan edistyneempi, kuin muut laitteet. Sattui ainakin huomattavasti vähemmän, eikä jättänyt ihoa yhtä pahan näköiseksi, kuin muut laserit. Vaikea sanoa, paljonko väriä lähti, koska en ottanut ennen / jälkeen kuvia. Mustat viivat näkyi kuitenkin edelleen. Olen laseroitaessa käyttänyt aina puudutusrasvaa paitsi Picosuren kanssa, enkä usko että siitä olisi ollut erityisemmin apua, se sattuu joka tapauksessa, mutta rasva saattaa vähän helpottaa kipua.
Tukholman reissua ei ole hetkeen tiedossa, joten kävin tänään Uumajassa Estetic Walk-in-nimisessä paikassa. Vain käsi laseroitiin, hinta oli 1000 kruunua, eli vähän päälle 100 euroa, paljon edullisempi, kuin aiemmissa paikoissa. Sattui, mutta ei mitenkään sietämättömän paljon. Toimenpiteen jälkeen en tiennyt olisko pitänyt itkeä vai nauraa, tatuointi on aiemminkin ollut punainen, turvonnut ja verestävä laseroinnin jälkeen, mutta ei koskaan tässä mittakaavassa. Haluaisin pitää paitaa, koska toi käsi on niin kaameen näkönen että voin itsekin pahoin, mutta sattuu niin paljon, ettei pysty. Näyttää ihan siltä kuin käsi olisi valeltu ketsupilla. Huomenna näkee miten isot rakkulat tulee. Ja nyt kun katsoo tota ensimmäistä kuvaa, se on tosi kaunis tähän verrattuna, mutta ehkä jonain päivänä mulla on tässäkin käsivarressa jotain, mistä oikeasti pidän.
Seuraavan aamun tunnelmat alla… Se on kipeä, mutta pystyy jo rasvaamaan ihan hyvin. Eniten pelottaa se, että noi rakkulat puhkeaa. Ehkä viikon päästä pystyy pitämään taas T-paitaa ja käymään salilla normaalisti. Oon aiemminkin peitellyt kättä laseroinnin jälkeen, mutta näin kamalalta se ei koskaan ennen ole näyttänyt. Päivitän kuulumisia, kunhan se paranee. (Ja ehkä myös laadukkaampia kuvia.)
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