I got these scars on my bicep area from very rapid body weight increase when I was a young lifter, probably before most of you were born. My skin, literally split when I added 9 stone in the first year. Anyhoo, I put up with the scars for many a decade. Then I recently heard about women micro-needling scars they got from child birth, I thought, I will give this a go on my scars. This is just 3 sessions, each done 15 days apart, just needling with a gadget called The Derminator-2 with a needle depth set to 2mm. The results speak for themselves. Gonna work on the biggest scar at the top of the photo, that is very near my armpit and harder for me to reach. This really is my left bicep, it does look like a leg...it ain't
At first, I used a hand-roller, but by the nature of a roller, the needles go in, and come out, at an angle and caused shearing and 'drag', which hurt. I then tried a modestly expensive German made Derma-Pen, it was better but still 'dragged' on the skin as I moved the pen over the skin, and hurt. I then finally tried the device called the Derminator-2. Its a pretty cool machine I must say, in that the 'stab-time' of the needle going in and out is so damned fast that there's no 'drag'. Its so much better I can use it without topical anaesthetic. Best money I ever spent. Smooth as silk in use. Can't get it away from my girlfriend now tho'
Never had a tat.. so I honestly have no idea if it feels the same, but tats are designed to put dye into the skin, this derma-needling is to just lightly puncture the skin (somewhat deeper for existing scar tissue) to stimulate collagen formation and (it seems) do pretty wild things to scars, even VERY old scars.
Yes, just superficially as I go deeper to chase scars and use 2mm depth. My girlfriend uses it set to 1mm on her face and just goes pink for a few hours, no blood.
The nice thing about this Derminator-2, is the bespoke needle cartridges they use. The needles are long, very thin, round and parallel thickness the whole length, versus the less sharp needles of the generics that cut more 'square'
Since these are continually piercing the skin, what’s the chance of infection? I read a little on this and saw they have replacements - how often do you replace, after every use?
Not replaced so far - must be very hard metal. However they are inexpensive and the re-use cleaning is very easy - done under a stream of hot water with a touch of dishwash detergent. Shake dry. I always clean my skin first with a scrub pad to get the dead skin layer off first so's it doesn't gum up the needle heads.
Man, if you can pin your butt, and handle the nauseating sound of a 21g needle squeaking as you hammer it deep into butt-muscle scar tissue... you can handle this. It's not even a nettle sting.
They look scary magnified... in real life, smaller than a Presidents' eyebrow on a '64 Silver Dime...
I think the risk is low, I chased many forums on Micro Needling (all methods) for information before I bought into this, and couldn't find any infection cases. If re-using the needle cartridges, always use your own needle cartridges on yourself and share with nobody else. Keep them clean with a hot wash, with full dry, after every use, and I always dip them in IPA (IsoPropyl Alcohol) prior to use anyway. Scrub-clean the skin to be done first like I do, with a final cleanse of the skin with a 70-% IPA wipe (Rubbing Alcohol) if you wish. For full paranoia mode, you could use a new needle every time, given you only needle as little as monthly on each area, its still cost effective to do this.
