When I was 18, I, like many other bright eyed and bushy tailed teenagers that just crossed the Rubicon into adulthood, decided to get some cheap tattoos. Of course at the time it doesn’t feel like a bad decision, and it definitely didn’t feel cheap either. You hear $50 an hour for anything at 18 years old and you feel like you’re paying an arm and a leg for it. It isn’t until later you find out that a good artist typically charges three to four times that amount.
They also do three to four times better on the tattoo.
I had a vision for what these tattoos would look like and I was excited to see it through. It wasn’t until about 2 years later that the space had been taken up but it didn’t look anything like what I had envisioned.
I was crushed.
So I had another artist try to “tie it all together” and I was left with what I could only consider to be an abomination permanently etched into my skin. I was embarrassed to even tell people I had tattoos at that point, dreading the inevitable “Let me see it!” comments.
Fast forward another 3 years of dealing with the constant sting of regret before I decide to look into getting a cover up.
At the time I was pretty deep into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muy Thai training and had done a few BJJ competitions, so I decided given where the tattoos were, it would be suitable (and relevant as someone in their mid 20’s that is feeling like a ‘bad ass’) to get a gladiator style armor plate cover up over my cheap tattoos.
This time, I paid a good artist good money to make sure it was done right. The way it was coming together was awesome. Despite being a hyper-masculine tattoo, I was happy to just have something that didn’t look as bad as the cheap tattoos did.
At the time, I was working, but didn’t have thousands of dollars to blow on tattoos so we finished around 75% of what I wanted done and the plan was to come back in around 2 months and finish as well as touch up the rest.
Unfortunately within that time frame, my artist passed away.
It was a tragedy and completely unexpected. My heart still goes out to his family for their loss.
I had tried finding an artist that shared his vision after that, including another in his own shop, but nobody quite matched up.
So here I was now, with not only a set of cheap tattoos, but now an incomplete cover up that felt like it would never be finished properly.
Fortunately, even at 75% I still didn’t hate it as much as the cheap tattoos, so I was able to tough it out until a couple years later when I was looking at options for things to do with all the tattoos that now covered my chest and about 1/3 of my arm.
I found a good tattoo removal business (not a sponsor, just who I use) that had good reviews and based on their pictures, good results. They ran a black Friday sale that took 50% off the cost of removal and decided to jump in. I spent about as much on that sale as I would another tattoo, so I figured I may as well give it a shot.
A few weeks after signing up I had my first appointment.
And I was not ready for what I was in for.
I’ll explain the process so that maybe you or someone considering getting removal knows what to expect.
When you first arrive, they take you back into the procedure room where you take off whatever article of clothing (if any) needed to expose your tattoo.
They then shave the area (again, if needed) and lay a giant ice pack over the tattoo to numb it as well as they can. This isn’t just any ice pack either, like you’d think of if you were packing a lunch or something.
It’s colder. Much colder.
Putting the pack on your skin hurts almost as bad as the removal does. It is not a pleasant experience.
After your skin is numbed up, they give a few test snaps with the laser which at first feel like a hot rubber band slapping your skin. No big deal, right?
Nope.
Once the laser gets going, and it’s repeatedly piercing your skin, it very quickly starts to feel like someone is cutting off a slab of your skin with a scalpel.
It is unbelievably painful.
My last tattoo session for the coverup had me in the chair for 8 hours. I’d rather do that again than spend 20 minutes in the laser room.
It’s that bad.
It is, however, the only real way to remove a tattoo. Using balms or scrubs can permanently scar your skin which is not what you want if you ever plan to get a coverup or get total removal.
Just know that removal does cost a pound of flesh, and you feel every bit of it.
At this point, I’m around 8 sessions in, and there has been a measurable improvement on what it looks like. It’s faded significantly, and I’ve accepted the fact that I will in all likelihood need yet another coverup, but this time I’ll have more flexibility with what I can do with the tattoos being as faded out as they are.
This is not to dissuade you but rather just inform you. It’s a procedure that’s been rigorously tested and more importantly, it works.
If you have a tattoo that you want removed or faded to cover up easier, it is absolutely something I can recommend. Just make sure wherever you go, that they are using the most up to date technology.
My one biggest piece of advice, is that you do not go cheap and use someone with outdated technology just to save a few dollars. It is simply not worth it.
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