Laser Away Session #2 Update 

The blues got to me. I’ll just say it. 

Our mind is a powerful thing because we really get to understand how it protects us from pain, discomfort, and things we don’t necessarily want to remember. I have a medium tolerance for pain to the body. But this time it was tough. Why have pain when you can not have it?

Watch my latest update here!

I forgot how miserable I felt when not being able to work out. Not being able to take a hot shower. I made sure to take a shower just beneath my body temperature. (Thank goodness for the thermometer numbers on my shower head.) 

Not being able to even walk in the sun, or get my blood circulating with a higher temperature in any way was something I completely forgot to factor in. I love working out, jumping around, dancing after dinner, and taking part in my daily excitement. 

TIP: Schedule sex.

For those of you who didn’t see my first session, you can visit it here in this post with the video.

When it comes to the size of my tattoo, there are two visits I have to do to finish one session. So this second session I had two visits, as with every session, because my tattoo is so large.

Watch the very first session here

Each visit is broken down into halves — the top of the tattoo is usually first — then the second visit 2 days after is for the bottom of my arm. The reason being, my tattoo wraps around my arm. If they zapped the whole area twisting around my arm, it would create lack of circulation for blood flow and I’d get a dead arm / hand. 

The intensity of the swelling is enough to know this laser thing is working as my body’s reaction is ever so clear. I see the pigment going away, and each technician is different, except one who was my first and last I had so far. 

Why each technician says you have a different amount of weeks to come back for your next visit

Something interesting that happens is every time I visit, the technician has a new amount of time I need to come back to visit. I thought getting laser tattoo removal was going to be a breeze and consistent “every 4-6 weeks you need to return for your next visit.” But that’s not the case. It’s not like laser hair removal.

Every session you do is stronger and more effective — for as long as you can handle the level they turn up onto cooking your skin. This means longer healing time in between. The first visit they said to come back in 6 weeks. The next was 8 weeks. And now I got 12 weeks. 

Plan accordingly when booking sunny vacations and cover up when out in sunlight. 

The extra pigment effects!

My hairs are now blonde! I wasn’t looking too carefully, but glanced at my arm and saw blonde – almost white hairs. The pigment was gone! It was so weird to see as if I had bleached my arms. Very 80s haha. 

I was going to ask the woman if I should shave my arms ahead of time (I usually shave my arms just to be smooth), but didn’t want to add unnecessary issues for ingrowns and such when already having such a tender, swollen arm after being lasered. 

Watch the 24 hour update from the first session here!

Session 2 Visit 1

After doing some testing of the discomfort on my arm, the tech asked, “Is that ok?” 

It was painful, alright. I said yes as a way to say, “Let’s get this sh*t over with, please.”

But she went back to the machine, turned a notch up even more and said, “Okay, we can turn it up then.”

WTF haha. No thanks. When she zapped me the first time, I was already squint-shutting my eyes and wincing like a person being roasted on a spit. It hurt. Much more than my first session. The discomfort was real.

It was kind of funny, because instead of just rubbing numbing cream straight on with her gloved hands, she used a cotton pad to wipe it around and she really struggled lol. Why not just rub it around? More efficient and less waste. But ok. To each their own. 🙂 

The other problem I had with this was I could feel she didn’t really cover everything. So when lasering the top section, I was in so much pain. The frustration of not having the numbing cream being rubbed in properly and activated was getting to me as I had to bite down hard on my own teeth. 

During the actual lasering part of the session I typically check my emails to distract myself. Issue one was the emails weren’t juicy enough to keep my brain diverted. Issue two was it hurt so bad I couldn’t focus on anything but trying to breathe to get through it.

Session 2 Visit 2

The OG woman I had my very first session with was training a new employee who was quiet and careful to watch. 

I made sure to come with a newly cleaned gauze, hydrocortisol and vaseline-d arm. She was happy to see I listened to her instructions, and unwrapped everything. 

She really got in there. Rubbed the numbing cream generously and I couldn’t thank her more in my head. The godsend cream was activated as I felt less of a pain. Or maybe the setting was a bit lower. I did had to have a second and told her to wait, before she could start again, because it was unbearable. Yes, it hurt like hell, but I got through it much better than my first visit for the second session.

This also felt quicker, because I got to ask her more questions about the process as she had a tattoo that was removed almost immediately after 4 sessions. Yes, hers was tiny, but I got to see living proof of my goals and that’s always something exciting to look forward to!

After the sessions

I didn’t take a shower for 2 days and felt disgusting. My hair was greasy, I washed my face and kept getting rid of any makeup two seconds after I put it on, and changed my clothes as much as I could to feel clean. I just felt lousy. 

Taking a cold shower wasn’t on my radar and I just waited until the swelling went down after a day. 24-48 hours is when you can’t raise your body temperature or else circulation will cause permanent scarring. No thanks.

Driving and doing anything with the arm was sore. It was difficult to drive right after the session. I didn’t like rubbing my arm on anything even if it was wrapped in cheese cloth and a load of gushy gels. 

A shower after a day made me feel like 75% of it was over. Just waiting for the tightness of the swelling to go down.

Would you rather have 10 sessions of less pain or 4 sessions of horror?

I don’t care if I have to do 10 sessions, but I rather do 10 sessions of less pain that 4 sessions of hell. The hell sessions would make me not want to come back after the first session in all honesty. I’ve had this happen before when a lady botched my microbladed eyebrows. 

I felt every single sting and crunch of my skin with the slice of her blade and expired numbing cream. I’ve never been so pissed in my life. 

This journey is definitely a challenging one and one I’m willing to take to be free of any labels, categorization, and stigmas. My tattoo was simply a phase I was in at 16 in a band. I am no longer anywhere near that person anymore, and I’m glad she’s slowly fading into my past. Before you know it, so is the tattoo.

What is something you’re doing for yourself to level up your brand / image? What is something you’re doing for yourself to make yourself feel better about being you? I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments below!

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