Step 1. Consult & back story.
Before now I would
not gladly talk about the scar tattoo that’s on the outer part of my right
leg. But, after today, there is hope and
excitement to turn this ugliness into something beautiful, but more importantly
something with a lot of meaning to me.
This piece will also end up being something very rare & unique
considering all of the aspects that are going into the process, which is why
I’m blogging about it. I just met with
Jackie @Black Lotus Tattoo shop in Severn, MD.
I’m thankful I have the opportunity to create something amazing with an
amazing artist. Jackie was hired by Halo
(owner of Black Lotus and featured on last season’s “ink master”), specifically
for her work on cover-up tattoos. You
can check out the shop and watch a short video on Jackie at http://www.blacklotustattoos.com/
Jackie has a degree in fine arts and
she uses her talent and expertise to create one-of-a-kind works of art to help
disguise and cover old tattoos and/or scars for her clients.
Although I will say that I had a little
dose of reality today from my consultation, with good news & bad news. I have some apprehension, a little fear, and
a little anxiety about this process.
But, I’m going in… More on that later.
My story:
So, Summer-time
brings warmer weather and exposed legs, which is something I have not been fond
of the last decade (ish). I’ve always
disliked showing the area of my leg that has been treated for tattoo
removal.
I would get questions like “omg, what
is that?”, or “What happened to your leg”.
I have avoided pedicures at cheap random places because of this
reason. I got tired of people always
asking me about it. Or, I might have
people try and guess what it is supposed to be… like the most recent one from
one of the nurses, when I was in labor with Lydia, “is that a distorted
Christmas Tree?”… Uhh, no… and then I feel like I have to give a short version
of the story as an explanation as to why it looks exactly as it does in the
present (so tired of this!!!). There
really is no short way to tell the story either. I do have to give credible mention to Miss
Maria at Emidio Vincenzo Escape Salon & Spa. From the first day of getting manis and pedis
from her, Maria never questioned me at all, and she didn’t gawk or stare at
that area on my leg even when she was right up next to it. I remember my first pedicure with her ever. I was just waiting for her to ask and getting
ready to have to tell my embarrassing story once again, but she never asked me
about it. I want to thank her sincerely
for her class and respect for my privacy.
It gave me the opportunity to share with her at my own leisure and
comfort.
So how did my tattoo come about? I will try to keep this simple, but still
detailed. So when I turned 18, yes I
wanted to do the tattoo thing. I don’t
think I wanted to do it because I was a little rebellious, I think at the time
I just wanted to do it because I could and well, I liked tattoos. My first tattoo is on my left shoulder. It’s of Tiger lilies wrapped in water. I (still) love it. It was done by The Body Shop in Carroll
County. My best friend at the time was
dating the guy who worked at the shop, and I did not end up paying anything for
the tattoo. I was very happy with
it. It was pretty big for a first
tattoo. But, I got through it. Well, the leg tattoo came about because a
friend I was kinda dating, kinda not, at the time was just getting his tattoo
career started. But, he was doing more Celtic
design work at the time. I was looking
through his tattoo magazines and I found a little fairy girl sitting on a
rock. It was a bit detailed with the
wings as far as coloring/shading goes.
But, I thought it was so pretty and I wanted it on my ankle. Well, we did it and I was just not totally
happy with the piece once it was completed.
It did not replicate the one I chose.
So, I lived with it for a while, well, until I heard about the
possibility of a cover-up tattoo. So,
back to The Body Shop I went, and ended up with a very traditional floral piece
for the cover-up, but with it came a lot of heavy black and dark green shading
in between the roses & other flowers.
It was a teal & purple rose next to each other with hot pink and
yellow smaller flowers on the top and bottom and lots of heavy dark shading in
between (lots). Thinking back, maybe I
would have kept it, but probably not. I just
didn’t love it.
So, years later I heard about laser
surgery tattoo removal. It seemed to be
a relatively simple concept (yea right).
I went to a couple of consultations and learned quickly it was going to
cost a heck of a lot of money and no guarantee of complete removal given all
the color my tattoo had. Also, other
considerations go into laser removal like type of ink, brand, how deep the ink
is, your skin type, etc. etc. A lot of
your result ends up being unique to the individual. So, a plastic surgeon friend of the family
was willing to try out his laser on me at a reasonable fee as more of making me
his guinea pig, so I accepted! I have
had probably 20 or more laser treatments and no more ink can be removed from my
leg. The laser did what it did and the
result is what I currently have. Going
in with more laser treatments or trying a different type of removal treatment
would not work because of how much that area has already been laser-treated,
it’s, for lack of a better term, immune now to any other laser technology. Getting laser treatments is essentially
damaging your skin tissue over and over again and the laser-treated area is
just like one big scar. Black Lotus
actually does feature a really cool Tat2Bgone laser removal system that is
pretty painless, decent price and great results. Man if only I had waited!! But, I can’t change the past; I can only make
decisions going forward with what I have to work with.
I never really wanted to share my
story. Well now I am ready. It may seem silly but this tattoo represents
many things to me. Not only does it
represent the meaning behind the actual design of the flowers I am choosing,
but it also has other meanings, like looking forward, accepting challenges,
letting go of fear, and entering a new phase of my life.
This does bring me to one very
important part. There is no guarantee
with this process. The most laser
treatments on skin that Jackie has ever tattooed have been 12-14
treatments. I haven’t had too many more
than that though, so I have to believe it will be a similar situation. The other thing is even though Jackie
specializes in cover-ups, mostly she’s covering up old tattoos, or other type
of scars – she hasn’t tattooed over a lot of laser-treated skin areas which
again is basically one large scar. I
honestly did not count the amount of laser treatments I had. 20 is just a good guess.
Another issue is tattooing over
laser-treated skin is generally more painful than getting ink on fresh
skin. Although I will say when Jackie
was rubbing my laser treated area and my fresh skin area, I had more feeling on
the fresh skin as supposed to the scarred area.
The scarred area almost seemed a little numb (probably a good thing in
my case). And, even another aspect is
that the tattoo may not look super bright once it’s healed – it may look more
like a tattoo that’s 5 years old, or like a person’s tattoo with wrinkled skin,
depending on texture of the scarred tissue.
But, the most significant issue is that there is always a possibility
the ink will not take well to the skin in the laser treated area. Jackie is planning to get in touch with the
girl she tattooed a month ago over the laser treated area to see how hers
healed. Jackie said she would know how
difficult the tattoo will be as soon as she starts outlining. But, the other thing is that line work and
shading can heal two different ways. As
I was sitting there absorbing all of the information, I was completely thinking
it wasn’t a good idea. But, then I
started thinking that what is life without taking chances and having faith that
things will work out. I’m sure people
don’t pray to God about tattoos, but putting a little faith in him and in all
the steps that have led me to this moment and this plan seemed like a good
idea. If this works out, it could be
truly beautiful.
I truly appreciated the honest
information I was receiving.
Before I left my house I stuck cash in
my wallet not even knowing if a deposit would be required to book a session and
if so how much. It turned out that a
cash deposit was required to book a session.
I had the exact amount. I can’t
explain it, but I just felt like I needed to go for it and not let my fear of
all the unknowns hold me back. The first
session is not until November 8th; so in the meantime, I have a few
things I can do to prepare my skin. Eat
as clean as I can and keep hydrated.
Things like coconut oil, almond oil, almonds themselves, extra virgin
olive oil, anything with flax seed, sesame seed, omega 3’s, fatty acids –
anything that is naturally good and will help to nourish the skin and get the
blood vessels pumping. Jackie also
suggested some scar creams. She
recommended rejuvenesse, but I looked it up and it’s a bit expensive, so I found
mederma has an overnight scar cream that should do similar what rejuvenesse
does. Also, I can eat raw honey and / or
apply it topically to the scarred area (not quite sure about the topical
application). Vitamin E and Coconut oil
products / lotions for the skin are good too.
The Body Shop has a few of these products I could get. The idea is to get that area of my skin in
the best shape it can be in before my first session. And, then pray it all turns out ok.
Onto some of the more exciting stuff is
what am I going to get? Since Jackie is
incredible at what she does, in terms of color & shading, design &
creativity, I’m leaving it in her very capable hands. I’m just giving her the basics of what I
want. Flowers, of course, is the easiest
thing to do cover-ups with, especially an area like mine.
You can manipulate the designs, the petals, and overlap as needed and
still have a pretty piece. You can group
them and cluster them together in various patterns and they work best. I am doing carnations (January’s flower for
Lydia), then Larkspur or a Water Lily (July’s flowers for Joshua), and then
violets or primrose (February’s flowers for Mom). Snowdrops were the other flower for January,
but that would never work as they are very whimsical and simple in design and
they are only white for realism.
Carnations can be virtually any color and are denser and you can work
with a lot of overlapping with the petals.
A simple flower for sure, but a lot you can do creatively in tattooing
while still keeping it real and covering more.
I want to remain optimistic. Jump in with me!
Tiger Lilies wrapped in water, my first tattoo.
my tattoo fund :) David put in his march madness winnings! :)
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tattoo scar on leg
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