It's Just a Question of TIme

The Effect of Sun on Tattoo Fading

I'm just home after 5 weeks of travelling. I have literally gone around the world, Dublin -> Auckland -> Sydney -> San Francisco -> Dublin. Mostly a very nice time but happy to be home. I've never been all that much a fan of Dublin (despite living here my whole life) but home is home. 3 of these weeks were for work so that probably didn't help. If you've never done business travel, it's like working at home only you're in another country but don't have time to see anything and miss all of your own stuff. If it's as far away as Auckland, you'll probably be tired too.

One of the things I was keen to learn was the affect of a sun tan on a tattoo undergoing treatment. I am slightly tanned but luck was against me. Sydney, where I spent two weeks, experienced its wettest March in 33 years. I had assumed Sydney is where I would get most sun, not least. As such, I don't think I can adequately state the impact of a sun tan on a fading tattoo. I know the sun can lighten the ink but it's slow. My thinking is that it may help fade some of the already damaged ink particles

I'm still really upbeat about the removal process, I think this is the first time I have posted that statement in this blog! The last session seems to have made a big difference, I had hoped the sun would add to that. I'm still thinking of waiting until around May for my next session, I think I'm just under 3 months since the last, so May will only be 5. I'm curious to see how it looks by then. I don't want to leave longer as we'll be into summer by then and I'll risk tanning again. I could wait until October but that seems long.

31 Mar 2017

In the interests of transparency I will state that I was slightly inebriated when I took the above photo, It was also in a hotel in San Francisco, not my sitting room window like I normally do, The tattoo has gotten lighter again, when I pull the skin it looks more patchy. That big bit of dark ink on the torso still hasn't broken down as much as I would like but it is thinning. I noticed yesterday that there used to be shading on the eye, I can still just about see it but it is nearly completely gone!

The last session I think was the biggest single impact since I started this process. I'm not sure if it will be possible to see such a leap with a single session again. My current thinking is that the last made such a difference is it is the total product of 4 q-switched and 3 picosure sessions. Assuming that the process is incremental, I am expecting the next session should again really make a difference. I have 3 prepaid sessions left. Since the last one, I am now kind of confident that this will be enough. I'm under no illusion though, I might need to space these out over a 12 month period.