Nuviderm At Home Tattoo Removal: Week Three (First Application) April 22, 2008

Day 19 V. Day 1

Most of the scabs have peeled off by now. The tattoo seems to be brighter and darker than it was before, as you can see in the before and after picture. Most of the skin surrounding the tattoo is just a little pinker than my normal skin color. Half of my tattoo has a distinct dark red outlining as well. I remember reading that after doing a initial TCA peel the tattoo will look darker and brighter since the ink is closer to the outter layers of the epidermis, that sounds good to me, I’ll stick with that.

It should be another couple of weeks before I am able to apply my second application of TCA.

Nuviderm At Home Tattoo Removal: Week One (First Application) April 12, 2008

Day 8: The blisters dried up. The skin is now hard and beginning to feel scab-like. The skin is dark pink/reddish in color. My skin is starting to peel around the tattoo. On an itch scale I would rate the past couple of days a 7 out of 10. The itch is insane, and hard to resist.

Day 10: The scabbed area has turned from reddish in color to a light tan. The itch isn’t quite as bad as it was before. Its hard to not have the scabs get ripped off from just normal day activities. I would recommend wrapping the area to decrease the possibility of ripping the scabs off.

Nuviderm At Home Tattoo Removal: Day Six (First Application)… Swelling April 8, 2008

I was going to wait until the one week mark for an update, but I noticed pretty major swelling of my ankle. I cant say I even know why it’s swollen, since it’s not the actual tattoo itself, but below it. I am going to ice it, elevate it and take some Advil. The positives? The swollen area doesn’t hurt at all.

Whats more fun than a huge swollen ankle? Huge blisters!

The whole bottom half of my tattoo is one big blister, there is also little blisters along the outside of the tattoo. It doesn’t hurt too bad, but it can get pretty uncomfortable.

Nuviderm At Home Tattoo Removal: Day Four (First Application)…Blistering April 6, 2008

Today and yesterday I have noticed that my tattoo is increasingly sensitive, and quite uncomfortable, especially if bumped or touched. I wouldn’t say it is extremely painful by any means, though. The purple/red outline has darkened, and there has been little areas outlining the tattoo that have started to blister. The picture I included shows the blistering. Note, the bumps within the tattoo are from the bandage, not blisters. In the directions it says that this product should not blister, but I’m not too worried, I have basically just burned myself with the TCA acid application, so a little blistering seems reasonable.

Nuviderm At Home Tattoo Removal: First Application April 3, 2008

* This is why you should never let anyone practice and pick out tattoos for you, ha. You will only regret it in the end!

After much procrastination, I finally applied my first application yesterday.

Before:

I started with 46% strength, I ended up being impatient waiting for my skin to frost, so I ended up adding one more part TCA which would bring it up to around 50% strength. I had to put on quite a few layers of TCA solution, between 5-7 for my tattoo to become totally frosted. The stinging wasn’t too bad, I would rate it a 3 out of 10, it’s more uncomfortable than anything.

Hour and a half after rinsing the TCA solution off. There is a whitish tint around the tattoo. After having a cold compress on the area for about 5 minutes, the stinging was barely even noticeable.

Following day, the whitish tint turned to a more reddish purple. I have been putting Neosporin on the area throughout the day, and will do so for a week. There is absolutely no pain or stinging at this point. From what the instructions said, I should experience peeling of the area in the next couple weeks.

*Note- I would be careful about drippage. The solution is very thin and water-like, I ended up dripping the solution around my ankle. Next time I will make sure to absorb a little less solution within the Q-Tip.

Nuviderm Directions:

Note: These are the exact directions Nuviderm sent me, when I lost the ones they originally sent me. Common sense, I wouldn’t recommend following these directions when using a product besides Nuviderm.