White hot pain. I was reading Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets last night and when Harry gets jabbed in the arm by the fang of the basilisk, Rowling used the term white hot pain. That’s what getting a tattoo removed by a laser feels like. I’ve never tried this, but imagine taking a magnifying glass in the Texas summer and focusing the point of the most intense, white heat at your skin for a brief moment, just long enough to where the scorching pain registers. Then do that a thousand times in a fairly isolated spot on your body. And there ya go… laser tattoo removal pain equivalent.
I had my second laser tattoo remove treatment with Cara at Austin Laser Clinic yesterday. Here’s a video of my first treatment back in early November. This treatment was not much unlike the last treatment, quick and painful. Thankfully Cara makes for good company during the process.
What’s interesting about the process is that it’s ongoing — not specifically the treatments that are spaced apart — but how your body reacts and handles the tattoo weeks and months after treatment. Since I’ve had this particular tattoo for 20 years, I’ve grown to where I don’t even really take notice of it anymore. Every week or so I’ll take a gander at it and realize that another line or specific section of the tattoo has really faded, or is almost gone. The body’s lymphatic system is slowly taking the broken down pigment particulates and chromaphore away.