Tattoo Forum with Gallery: ask your tattoo questions, upload your own tattoo pictures or rate and comment other member’s tattoos!

K9 · Tattoo lover Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

I have a tattoo on my right shoulder that I absolutely loathe. After three laser treatments at over $200 a pop it had hardly faded. That was especially frustrating because the tat is black, which is supposedly the easiest color to remove. It looks like I have the misfortune of having a low-quality tattoo in high-quality ink. I was extremely frustrated, and decided desperate measures were called for. I resolved to use salabrasion on myself, but only on a small portion of the tattoo, as a test. I knew I'd certainly scar, but didn't care.

I hopped in the shower with a pouch of sea salt, turned on the water, poured some salt onto a wet cloth, and began rubbing my arm very hard. Within a few minutes I was bleeding, and within twenty the epidermis was gone and I had dug well into the dermis. The pain was excruciating, but only at first; it seems the salt began acting as an anaesthetic after a while. (Or it could have just been my endorphins kicking in.) I was spurred on by the fact that I could actually see the ink becoming patchier the more I rubbed. Eventually I had a deep red valley in my arm that bled surprisingly little--apparently salt staunches blood flow. It was terrible-looking, but didn't hurt much. (Keep in mind that I've been whipped for fun, so my opinion of what's painful might be taken with--well, a grain of salt.) I had spent almost two hours toiling and decided it was time to be done, though there was still some ink left. I rinsed off the salt with cold water, dried myself, put antibiotic ointment on the wound, bandaged it, and went to sleep.

A scab soon formed which had a hard time staying attached to my arm because the wound was so deep and there was nothing much for it to cling to. A lot of ink was contained in the scab--when it fell off, the ink that was left underneath was hardly visible. A second scab formed and fell off, with more ink in it. It's now been a couple of weeks since the salabrasion and the wound is well on its way to healing, with hardly any ink visible. I pour hydrogen peroxide on it every day after I shower, followed by vitamin E cream and Neosporin. The tiny bit of ink that's left seems to be very close to the surface, and I think it'll completely disappear by the time I've fully healed.

I can now say from firsthand experience that salabrasion does work. It's nasty, ugly, bloody, barbaric, painful, carries the risk of infection, and will certainly leave heavy scars, but that it gets rid of ink is beyond dispute. I haven't decided yet if I'll use it on the rest of my tattoo. That'd be a huge scar, and I'm not sure I want it.

mommabird · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:47 am Post subject:

OUCH!!! Not something that I think I can do - you are much braver than me...ha! Wink

Just as an FYI. I used to work for a veterinarian and he would only use peroxide as an initial cleaner/antiseptic, but not after the first day. The reason is because peroxide cleans so well that it can actually damage new cell growth and can delay healing. Now, maybe this is what you want - perhaps you want it to take longer to heal so it will form more scabs and pull more ink. But just wanted to mention that.

I've also heard this from body piercing places that recommend using peroxide the first day and then just sea salt on subsequent days.

Good luck with your removal.

K9 · Tattoo lover Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

Thanks for mentioning it. My main concern is preventing infection, but yeah, if the peroxide helps get rid of ink by causing more scabbing, then I'm all for that, too. I know heavy peroxide use can encourage heavy scars, but I don't care about that.

K9 · Tattoo lover Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

Update: the wound has finished its initital healing phase and turned to a bright red scar. All that's left of the ink is a very slight trace that probably wouldn't be visible if I didn't know to look for it. The redness is quickly fading. I've been using the scar-removal cream Mederma, which is quite expensive ($25 for a little tube) and highly effective. If my past experience with similar abrasion scars is any indicator (falling off bikes, etc.), what I'll have in about a year is a not-too-noticeable hypopigmented area. Personally, I'm not bothered by that. I plan to remove the rest of the tat the same way. Pain train, here I come.

I'll probably post photos of the end result, once all the ink is gone and the scar has fully healed. (I know it'd be more helpful to post "before" pics as well, but I REALLY hate this tat, if I haven't mentioned that already, and don't want there to be any record of it.)

I hope someone finds this useful.

tat2begone · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:44 pm Post subject: your a brave man

You are a brave man, to actually rub you skin till it falls off. Just thinking about it makes me ill. Let me answer some questions for you about your laser treatments. Everyone one body works different when it comes to laser. The laser delivers a short pulse of high intensity light into the treated area. Then the tattoo is dissolved into smaller ink particles that are harmlessly removed by the body’s immune system over 5 weeks following treatment. Here at Tat2begone Medical group we recommend 8-15 treatments. By what you said about you ink being professional your treatments most likely would have been all 15. If you had amateur or street tattoo you can get that removed for as few at 8-12 treatments. Considering laser tattoo removal is the most fast, safe and effective way to remove at tattoo that leads to no scarring, I would suggest that you kept going on you treatment.

K9 · Tattoo lover Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

[quote="tat2begone"]Considering laser tattoo removal is the most fast, safe and effective way to remove at tattoo that leads to no scarring, I would suggest that you kept going on you treatment.[/quote]

Cost of laser treatment: $225 per session X 15 sessions = $3375

Cost of DIY salabrasion: Pouch of sea salt, $2.50
Cloth, $.50
Hydrogen peroxide, $1.00
Neosporin, $3.00
Nasty scar
Two six-packs of beer for concocting bullshit glamorous story to explain nasty scar to chicks, $10.00

Total cost of DIY salabrasion: $17.00

K9 · Tattoo lover Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

I forgot to add:

Three hours of listening to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" while vigorously rubbing salt into one's own wound: Priceless

I guess "priceless" would technically make salabrasion the more expensive option. Very Happy

newchoice · Tattoo lover Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 3

dude im diein to see pics

tat2begone · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:41 pm Post subject: priceless...

Well I don't no the exact specs of you tattoo, nor am I that place you went too. All I can say is that laser tattoo removal is the safest most effective way to go. If you like rubbing your skin till you see bone, by all means go for it. I am sure that scar is going to be a good one too.

K9 · Tattoo lover Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

[quote="tat2begone"]If you like rubbing your skin till you see bone, by all means go for it.[/quote]

I never implied that I like it, only that I find it preferable to spending three grand on laser treatments. If money were no object, I'd certainly go with the laser.

Update on the scar: it's turned from red to pink and seems to be healing nicely. It itches. For the last couple of weeks, the only thing I've been doing to it is applying Mederma two or three times a day. Well, that and being very conscientious about taking my vitamins, drinking lots of water, eating loads of vegetables--I'm sure all of that helps. There is absolutely no trace of ink in the scarred area. Any chance of the site becoming infected has long passed.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've had similar deep scrapes before (from accidents), and they all ended up as faint white scars that I hardly notice unless I'm looking for them. Personally, I find that perfectly acceptable. I think this one will turn out the same way.

newchoice · Tattoo lover Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 3

where the pics at ? Cool

K9 · Tattoo lover Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

[quote="newchoice"]where the pics at ? Cool

[/quote]

I'm deliberating whether to post photos before I've fully removed the tattoo. On one hand, I think you'd be impressed with how well the scar has healed after only five weeks, and it'd probably help to be able to see the contrast to the surrounding ink. On the other hand, I'm not at all sure about having this hated tat forever out on the Internet. Maybe I can take a very close shot so I can show the scar and a bit of the surrounding area without revealing the design. I'll see what I can do.

newchoice · Tattoo lover Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 3

right on.. check this vid out. Dude wont tell me what he used. Maybe paint thinner? but im pretty sure paint thinner is'nt corrosive.

seems to work

what the heck i cant post vid links to youtube.. that sucks

add www to that
.youtube.com/watch?v=JsnOO0OVTU4

Mystery · Tattoo lover Joined: 02 Nov 2008 Posts: 1

Hi, just found this site and read your salabrasion experience , wondering if you have any new updates? i am really hating a 3/4 sleeve I had done, and laser cost way too much, i was hoping you can tell me more about yours , how big was the area you did? I have read the sea salt stories and also found another way to do your method, I was told that if you use a tattoo machine and instead of ink, dipping the needle in sea salt and water, going over the area, then after you do that while its red and bleeding, you apply a sea salt paste to it that it should work and scar less then your way, what i want to know either way im sure there will be some kind of scar, your a man so im sure its cool to show off the scars, im a woman so scars arent really what i want, but as you said, id rather scar then have the tattoo, is your scar bad at all? has it faded more since your last post? if you have any pics at all could you email them to me? or any advice at all will be great...