Working with young patients
When working with patients it’s important to be aware of their expectations and requirements. When liaising with young people you need to be extra aware that they understand all aspects of the treatments itself, the healing and after care, the risks, the pain and the long-term effects, and marry this up to their expectations.
Finding a visual or numeric way to analyse and communicate this information is imperative, so shape, colour, style, and results are monitored and understood by both parties.
When a young person has already been through multiple surgeries their pain tolerance can go either way. Some people find that they cannot feel much at all, a lot of nerves have been cut and have not regenerated so they cannot feel the pain in the same way. However, in the other extreme sensitivity can become heightened causing an intolerance to pain. This is another area that requires a level of communication that can be easily monitored and recorded to fine tune the regularity of topical anaesethic required. The needle configuration can also be changed to minimise pain.
What tends to be most important for all my patients is being listened to, what are they looking for, what are they hoping to achieve and what are their expectations? Can Medical tattooing fix that, or do they need to be referred elsewhere?
I recently had a lovely young lady who had had a birthmark removed as a child. She had undergone surgery, tissue expansion, and skin grafts all by the age of 6 years old. This resulted in a loss of eyebrows, and as she became a teenager, she started to apply transfer brows. These are a good alternative when you are too young for tattooing, but the transfers can rub off easily, especially when playing sports, or wiping your brow, in the sun, which in turn can cause fear or embarrassment not knowing whether the brows are wearing off. Also, with scarring and grafts, the skin can get very itchy at times, and being afraid of touching your face because of the fear of the brows wearing off can cause anxiety. Moisturising can calm the itching but again can lead to parts of the transfer being rubbed off. With medical clearance from a consultant, it is sometimes suitable to tattoo the brows on. This can aid a young person’s confidence in meeting new people, aid a renewed pleasure in sporting activities, and take away the frustration and inconvenience of either drawing them on every day, or cutting and sticking the transfers on.
During this consultation the expectation was for natural eyebrows, nothing too obvious, just a normal, natural look. This is often achieved with a mixture of hairstrokes and a little shading, however, I explained this may not be a possibility because of the nature of the graft and the texture of the skin. It was explained that it was worth trying but often within a graft, the pigment can migrate, and I couldn’t guarantee the lines would heal as clearly defined as desired. However, if we couldn’t achieve the exact look she wanted, I could work around that and still achieve a very natural looking brow with shading.
It was with great joy that after the first treatment the area healed so well, helped along by following the aftercare thoroughly, that the hairstrokes were visible, and we could continue the preferred path. One very happy patient and one very happy practitioner.
When working on the face you need to start out softer than required as occasionally the pigment can turn darker.
After the initial session, the results were:
1 is ‘Before any Medical Tattoo treatment’. 10 is ‘Where you would like the area to be’.
Did the area heal well, or did you experience any problems?
No problems at all. Occasionally itchy, no scabbing – no flaking. Gradually over the time with showering it went lighter. Right side is a little lighter than the left.
Rate the overall appearance of the area from 1 – 10? 8
Rate the colour match of the area from 1-10? 6
The colour they were when first tattooed was dark enough and perfect – Without any fading
In your view what has improved?
In general, I can moisturise my face and don’t have to be careful about the area – don’t have to keep touching them up, can do sports, can stop thinking about them.
What has not improved
Could go darker – colour.
Any problem areas?
No, other than right side has lightened more than the left side
Has it improved your confidence at all? Yes
After a period of 10 weeks, we then started the second session. The colour was perfect it just needed to be concentrated. This was achieved with a change of needle and focusing on the individual hairstrokes. At the end of the session all parties were extremely pleased with the outcome but again we needed to wait for the final healed result.
1 is ‘Before any Medical Tattoo treatment’. 10 is ‘Where you would like the area to be’.
Did the area heal well or did you experience any problems?
No problems. Hardly any scabbing – less than last time
Rate the overall appearance of the area from 1 – 10? 10
Rate the colour match of the area from 1-10? 9
Would go a tad darker – one tone darker but be very careful with that.
In your view what has improved?
Everything
What has not improved?
Any problem areas? No
Has it improved your confidence at all? 100%
Amazing, I can’t believe how great they are. I can itch my forehead without worrying about them coming off. Friends have noticed and said they really suit me. Really, really happy with it.
As you can read from the feedback this young lady’s confidence improved by 100% and both patient, and myself as practitioner are delighted with the result.
If you would like to book a free-of-charge phone call or a full medical consultation please use this direct link to read the FAQ’s and book your appointment online with Rae Denman.
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