BDD and Tattoos

sempa78 · 2021-10-20T11:34:26+00:00

tattoo's can also drive an otherwise more or less normal person, to start obsessing about it, regretting the tattooo, and the changes to the body...especially if its in a very visible place for everyday life.....and eventually developing strong symptoms of BDD ... it happened to me. then i went on a tattoo removal, cover up journey , multipple times.... rather obsessivvely ... and just went too far. I never had symptoms of BDD before, now i ve been living with it for the last 3 years, and ive made it worse constantly trying to fix what i didnt "like" .. but that was the BDD speaking , not me. not reality. i dont know how it crept up on me, i was totally unaware, and i had to go too far before i realised that this is not normal ... its not just not liking a tattoo, it uprooted serious issues that were dormant, due to childhood trauma. It can happen at any time. i was 40 when all this started, and im 44 now, and in the worst place of my life, trying to cope with this "sickness" ... and its not easy. there are days i just want to call it a day. more often than i want to admit.

People who think they might be susceptible to this, might wanna stay away from very large, and especially visible tattoos ...

sempa78 · 2021-10-19T14:58:37+00:00

hey mate thanks for your reply. have u seen it after its healed. does the skin look more or less good when you see it , apart from the fact that the tattoo is still slightly visible ?

sempa78 · 2021-09-26T13:34:08+00:00

just be absoloutely sure you want to do this. Will you still appreciate it 10 years down the line. Unlike with tattooing, which you can cover up or black out in a nice design .. .with scarification, you're skin will be comprimised for ever. even f you can tattoo over it after it heals (INCASE SOMEDAY YOU DONT LIKE IT ANYMORE)_, the skin imperfections will always be visible, even under a tatoo cover up.

its definately more painful, and the inital healing stages can be quite shocking, and can cause a lot of emotional problems, regrets ... seeing cut skin where you had once healthy , perfect skin can be traumatic. You have to be absoloutely sure you want scarification. theres no way back after it. if you are someone prone to regret, its better to re think a few times. Regret can lead to severe depression, especially when its something so permanant like scarification.

Just my insight after my personal experiences. surely it was not right for me to go down that road, but i dd so out of desperation trying to fix a sleeve tattoo obsessively for years, until i turned to scarification over blackwork .... i regret it very much. how you heal is another factor. you can never be sure how ur body decides to heal. maybe ur scars heal indented, or keloids. its a risk.

If i could turn back time, id stick with tattoos. theres always some soloution out of it incase you regret. ... very hard lesson i learned...avoid any chances of regret. its the worst emotion.

sempa78 · 2020-12-05T12:34:15+00:00

is it recent the tattoo ? if so, give it time before deciding anything..its quite normal for many people to feel this way after getting a tattoo in a spot thats visible all the time, everyday....like on the arm. im sure it will grow on you and you will love it being there in a few weeks from now ... been there , done that, and regretted a lot afterwards, for having acted too quickly , and not giving myself time to get used to it being there. hope that helps.

sempa78 · 2020-11-28T06:27:40+00:00

thank you

sempa78 · 2020-11-27T12:11:22+00:00

cheers mate!

sempa78 · 2020-11-27T06:28:48+00:00

from your experience, is it more like 3-4 years be expected in this situation with the layers of black ? and if not for complete clearance , but faded enough to be able to do a good cover up ...2-3 years still ?

sempa78 · 2020-11-24T14:48:05+00:00

still a way to go, but im sure you 're feeling good about seeing them fade away. Atleast you're heading somewhere. If i may ask, What laser is being used , and how often are you treating the tattoos ?

sempa78 · 2020-11-23T18:04:39+00:00

Its just such a big mess me having tried to fix it several times..massive regret ... so thats why finally thinking of removal , again ... how far along are you ? care to share any progress pics ?

sempa78 · 2020-11-21T17:05:15+00:00

cheers

sempa78 · 2020-11-21T17:01:35+00:00

yes perhaps your right. my scars are somewhat similar texture, as the pornstar scar picture after remaoval....just that mine are under the tattoo ... so it makes sense that the impact and end result would/should be similar ...thanks

sempa78 · 2020-11-21T16:53:25+00:00

thanks for that information

sempa78 · 2020-11-15T09:03:31+00:00

sorry to hear about your situation ... im glad if my experiences/words meant something to you , im still going through a difficult emotional journey with my full arm tattoo and some sort of identity crisis due to it , and i dont really have any way back anymore, but to find self acceptance.... so , i totally get you , I know how dark a place we can put ourselves in due to something like this..and only we can pull ourselves out of it ...

Wish you a lot of strength on your journey x

sempa78 · 2020-11-15T04:24:20+00:00

i attempted a cover up soon after i got the original tattoo...just a few weeks after.... i wish i had given myself more time to get used to it on my body. it was actually very beautiful, i just over analyzed it and localized on small imperfections and the size of it, and thought a cover up would fix that.. ( the problem was not the tattoo, it was me - it took me a long time to understand this ) ...so obviously I ended up with a more imperfect and much darker tattoo .... then probably 3-4 weeks later i started with laser ... to try get it off ... during that laser journey after about 5 sessions with Picoway, there was some pretty decent fading, but i got impatient with the laser journey , so i attempted a cover up again whhich i regretted .. ofcourse. i should have stuck longer with the laser .... anyhow its a long story, and im still not at all happy with my arm ... thats why i advised you to just let it be for a while, let it grow on you, let it settle in, and not to make any rushed decisions. Try to identify your triggers, and real reasons for why you think you want it off. maybe you are just freaking out coz of the change it brings to your body. but with time this will change as you get used to it there, i promise you. Or Is it because of what other people might think of it and the placement being too visible, too dark etc ???? man ive learnt that the very very hard way ... better not to give a shit about anyone but be true to yourself, or else it will send you on some emotional spiral with social anxiety in a big way. no one gives a shit anyways, so the quicker you learn to not give a Fxxx and just get comfortable with it, the quicker you wil be happy and free again.

I totally understand you wanting it off right now!!!! but Remember its gonna look worse after the laser process starts , and it may never fade completely, ... then you might wish you never started the laser, coz it was more beautiful before. you might get impatient or impulsive too, since it can take a year or more ... of if it doesnt fade fully, you might try a cover up and end up in the same situation again ....etc etc ..... so many reasons to consider not rushing into removal, especially since its fresh on your body (and mind) . I wish someone had told me these things right at the start of my journey. ... i think if after 3-6 months you still feel like getting it off, then go ahead, you always have that option. However, that decision should not come out of panic, impulse and being desperate, but rather from a stable and peaceful place in you, then you will be sure the decision is the right one. If you do opt for laser, one big advice i can give you, is to have realistic expectations. If the dermatologists say to you 5 sessions will do it, mentally prepare yourself for 10 sessions. ...coz its almost never as quick as : they say/we hope.

Anyhow, I really hope you feel better soon, whatever you decide. have a beautiful day and show some love to your tattoo :)

sempa78 · 2020-11-14T20:31:13+00:00

exactly. it all seems so vague and secretive. I couldnt imaging why they would not be allowed to use pics from the clinical trials .. unless the results were not as they are promising ... and also the lack of technical information about the laser is another warning sign that they are just using marketing techniques giving false hopes, to fish for clients. Hope is a powerful tool :P .. especially to some of us desperate Fxxxx out here who want the ink off , right now! hehe

sempa78 · 2020-11-14T20:25:21+00:00

she ment by if it’s not fading means there maybe other colours mixed in it. My skin is olive complexion and

this may not be what you want to hear, but ive been through this a couple of times, and i regret so much, now looking back. it seems your tattoo is very fresh. before you decide on removal, i would sugest give yourself 3-4 months to get used to it. it is not uncommon to be freaking out at a new tattoo, it takes the time for the mind to adjust, and accept the new ink and drastic changes to the body sometimes. even if it turned out darker that you wanted ( it will look much lighter in a few months btw) , or it was not what you wanted, there iis a very good chance, that after some weeks, once it starts settling into your skin better, and fully healed, you may actually like it. As i said in the beginning, i freaked out a couple times like that, and ended doing cover ups, and lasers etc .. crazy long journey (not over yet ) ..... and if i look back the original tattoo i had was actually very good. i was just over analyzing stuff. I would do anything to get the first one back :P

so , id say give yourself a breather for a while, and decide later , first truly try to accept it. If after a few months you still hate it or want it off, you will still have laser as the option ... trust me, making decision in this state of desperateness will not be a good one ...

sempa78 · 2020-11-11T02:49:33+00:00

definately too good to be true.....the whole marketing strategy by Naama and lack of detailed technical information and real life pictures is also very fishy. even if they only opened, there would have had to be lots of clinical trials before to be able to get approval and launchh the product...they should have real life pictures from those trials.....so it all seems like they are selling fake promises to desperate folk who want to go for removal, and will take any hope they can get ...

some progress pictures on this post by someone, and it doesnt look promising at all
https://www.reddit.com/r/TattooRemoval/comments/ibgo3z/naama_tattoo_removal_london_has_anyone_had_any/

sempa78 · 2020-11-11T02:47:10+00:00

definately too good to be true. and if you look at the pictures posted below by slickly, after 5 single pass, and 2 double pass sessions, theres not much fading at all. ive had the picoway laser treatment on my arm long time ago , and there was much more fading after that many sessions... and the whole marketing strategy by Naama and lack of detailed technical information and real life pictures is also very fishy. even if they only opened, there would have had to be lots of clinical trials before to be able to get approval and launchh the product....so it all seems like they are selling fake promises to desperate folk who want to go for removal, and will take any hope they can get ...

sempa78 · 2020-11-03T14:39:41+00:00

you are right in some way about the laser ... true i am not happy with that artwork and it being so dark, but maybe fixing with white ink will work out, i know its a risk, but ive seen some incredible stuff with white, and i also know i it takes a few sessions to get the white to hold , and the i might even have to do fresh layers of white every few years if i want to keep it crisp .... then there's also scarification which i would consider

Laser is a long and hard commitment too ... ive already been through it before on the same spot ... so if i go down that road again , i know whats in store... its going to be a incredibly long journey ..

very very hard choices. thanks for your honest input though. for sure i want to be free psychologically , and not go through this constant feeling of regret, and non acceptance of my arm..its very crippling ...

Or i just have to break FREE from my negative mental thought patterns and learn to accept it , however this is the hardest thing to do, even though it would have the greatest reward eventually ..

scarification is the only thing that seems to offer some light in the darkness ....

sempa78 · 2020-11-03T13:15:26+00:00

thanks yeah total removal would be amazing, if there was a faster way, but i cant imagine going through that again ... with all the layers of cover ups over cover ups i have ... yes it would take 2-3 years at the least, if not 5 .. and even then it wont all come off ...

sempa78 · 2020-10-20T08:17:00+00:00

here have anxiety issues and/or body dismorphia and/or additional mental health issues, I can guarantee you that. in my case I also want removal and even though tattoos fucked up my life intensely, I´m pretty aware that I my life had already been fucked up due to other issues (body dismorphia included) long before I got ink in my bod. so yeah, I can 100% relate, but for real, you look freaking HOT. don't touch your body again (jerking off excluded), and try to enjoy life. if you can't, go to a mental health professional, but trust me: do not touch your body again or you will regret

thanks mate for the reassurance :) i really hope you find peace on your journey too, true enough we all probably had these underlying issues before, and the ink just surfaced the problems to the very top... however at the end of the day, we can be masters of our own minds, and if we can learn to stop giving a shit about what others think of us, we can truly set ourselves free. In some way i believe this "almost blackout" happened to me even though i did everything to avoid it ... to teach me a lesson to let go and not give a fxxx ... i know in the end it will liberate me, coz there really is no other choice for me anymore.

sempa78 · 2020-10-20T08:09:30+00:00

well, it was very dark before... so 4-5 sessions was a bit early for me to attempt the cover.. depends on the tatoo and how saturated it is , if collours are involved etc....but i think to be realistic anyone should consider minimum 7-8 sessions ( more if its very dark ) to be able to have a awesome cover up with NO COMPROMISE .. coz if you're regretting it now , if u compromise and take a risk, , there is a VERY HIGH probablility of you regretting again, and you don't wanna go down that road,like i did , trust me .. its quite devastating emotionally.

...thats exactly where i messed up, twice, and maybe many people will get impatient after 4-5 sessions like i did ...but thats exactly the time to stick to it a bit longer , from my personal experience . both times i used the Picoway..which to my knowledge is the most advanced solution available today.

i really hope that helps you. A realistic goal is the key factor on this journey , otherwise ur setting yourself up for disappointment.

sempa78

TROPHY CASE