I’ve learned a valuable lesson that I want to share with as many people as possible. My hope is to prevent anyone else from having to learn this painful lesson.

• Impulsive, impetuous tattooing is dumb.

This may sound obvious, but if you’ve ever been bitten by the ink bug you’ll understand how easy it can be to be caught up in the moment and want a tattoo right now. My situation is a bit different as I already had the tattoo in question. My goal was to convert it magically into something fabulous, actually to merge two unrelated tattoos sharing living space on my left arm into something cohesive.

I thought about this quite a bit, and consulted with tattoo artists. I printed pictures of my arm and drew on them. But when the appointment rolled around, I really had no idea what we were going to do. And yet I let the man just go for it.

So after living with it for a short time, I came to the realization that my arm was a mess and I hated it! I consulted, but it was too late. I could not find an artist willing to do a cover-up. Laser Removal became my only option.

I am writing this post the night before my trip north to the Room of Agony. I am more prepared this time, having purchased a topical anesthetic to deaden my skin. I will need to stop along the way to apply it, and wrap my arm in Cling Wrap.

I plan to include photos this time and hope to get Steve the Laser Master to provide some early pictures for comparison. I dread the 3 1/2 hour drive, but it is nothing compared to the 30 minutes under the Torturous Beam. I will update this blog as “live” as possible.

I am now home and will recap the day’s events:

12:30 PM – Pull over into a McD’s to apply Super T, a topical anesthetic. I wrap my arm in Cling Wrap.

2:00 PM – Steve is ready for me upon my arrival at Immortal Images. He inspects the fading we got from Round III and is pleased. He adjusts the settings higher for this round.

2:05 – We begin with what I affectionately call the Obi Wan Kanobi laser. A subtle heat, but painful nonetheless. I noticed it was less painful than usual and was able to carry on conversation and snap pictures.

2:15 – Steve breaks out The Beast and gives the required warning. It hurts quite a bit for the next 15 minutes or so.

2:30 – We’re done, and it wasn’t as bad as the last time! The Super T was effective in slightly deadening my skin, allowing me to tolerate the Gamma Rays from a Red Hot Nova with much less distress. I will use it for the remaining treatments.

Speaking of remaining treatments, Steve believes it will take 2-3 more to get to the point where we may be able to proceed with a cover-up. I’m banking on 3, but 2 would be wonderful. What the cover-up will be is still open, but it will be traditional Japanese style.

More from howjoeseesit

• Laser Tattoo Removal Round Three
• Laser tattoo removal Round Six
• Laser Tattoo Removal Round One