Whenever you see the media covering tattooing, the issues of tattoo removal is brought up. Typical all American men and women with their bleached blonde hair, store bought tans and Abercrombie and Fitch outerwear cry over how much they need to have their tattoo removed. What the media rarely discusses is how there's this movement within the body modification community of tattoo removal for the purposes of facilitating cover ups and to improve the overall quality of tattooing on one's body.
At A Glance Author molebiol Contact [email protected] IAM molebiol When It just happened Artist Dr. Snyder Studio Laser Center Location Owings Mill, Maryland When I was 19 and up until the last year, I always thought of tattoo removal as a cheap way out of escaping your responsibility to yourself and your decisions. That was before I decided to learn how to tattoo by fucking around on my legs. Half my calf is tattooed by myself and that I will keep or finish at some point, or maybe I'll laser it one day, who knows. I haven't decided yet. The other piece I did was on my upper right thigh, a black and grey piece that I knew I'd never finish. Once Larry Davis started my rib panel, I saw that my self done piece was going to permanently break up the flow and quality of work on my thigh. At first I thought, maybe I'll finish it one day and add color and make it nice and pretty. But then the more time I spent looking at Seth's work on my knee, Adam's work on my calf, and Larry's work on my outer thigh, the more upset I became..
So! What could be a better way to start the New Year by getting that piece of crap removed? After talking to some people I knew, the general consensus was that the Chicago laser center or Doctor Snyder outside of Baltimore were the two best choices in terms of price and efficacy. Although there are a few laser doctors in NYC, I haven't heard anything good about any particular one. Also, if someone goes by Dr. Zaptat, there's no way in hell I'd go to him. Plus I saw some awful scarring on one girl who got lasered by some NYC doctor, it looked like she had had her foot cut off and re-attached, that's how thick the scarring was. Considering I was nowhere near Chicago, I got a hold of Doctor Snyder's number and gave him a ring about 2 months ago to set up an appointment for a free consultation and the possibility of having the procedure done the same day, Dec. 31st.
The day finally arrived and I climbed into my car for the 3.5 hour drive to Baltimore. I hate I-95 and I know it like the back of my hand I'm heading down south so much nowadays. The place was easy to find and I finally arrived with some trepidation and quite a bit of exhaustion. Filled out some paperwork and watched some Ricki Lake in the waiting room for 30 minutes. I was finally led into an examination room whereupon I met Doctor Snyder, a short man with a light brown beard and glasses and a friendly demeanor. After seeing the hand sized piece, we discussed and looked through his portfolio of lasered tattoos. It always helps when someone like Mick Beasly or Eddie Deutsch has gone to him for tattoo removal because it lends a lot of credibility to the man. Anyways, he gave me a break on the piece at $300 per session. The advantage for me is that since I am not looking for 100% complete removal of the tattoo, and since it is black and grey and not overly solid, it sh ould lighten up sufficiently to cover up with no problem.
Anyways, he offered me the chance to get it done that day whereupon I heartily agreed. Hell, I was there, why not get it done. I was led into a separate room with a large machine and a table in the center of the room. I had heard that lasering was rather painful, but he asked me if I was tough whereupon I told him that I get my ribs tattooed with nothing more than an Alleve or a few ibuprofen. And if 60% of his patients decided not to have lidocaine injections or emla applied, I could do it too. Maybe it's a toughness issue with me but what the hey, I can deal with brandings, I can deal with lasering. Donning my protective glasses, I laid down on the table and he went at it. It definitely hurt more than tattooing for sure and it was hot and sharp pain many people compare to getting smacked repeatedly with a rubber band. The more densely packed areas of ink hurt more and some less densely tattooed areas hurt very little if at all. The main thing is that the laser wil l cause the particle to break up into smaller particles that your body's immune system can take away. Normally, the ink particles are too large for that to happen.
At the current time, it's been 2 days since I had my leg lasered. It's barely sore although it is very red and swollen and there are some blisters. There was minimal bleeding and the process was done in 10 minutes. Main aftercare is to keep it wrapped with bacitracin for about a week so I am walking with gauze bandage around half my thigh. Overall, not a bad experience and all I can say is that my mental state of mind is much happier now that I know that that piece of crud is going bye bye. Time until I can see the full effects of the treatment is about 6 weeks....I believe I need only one other session and then I'm set to go for completion of the short suit. I am also planning on having some older black work on my chest lasered at some point in the future in order to rework the greywork and tattoo my boobs. What a wonderful thing technology is!