Harm Reduction Track Marks MEGA Thread v 1:Human Pin Cushion

[tweex]

I'm thinking that I'm definitely not gonna do that.

It is actually a pretty standard treatment: http://www.prevention-center.com/surgeries-en/scar-treatment-en#Scar treatment with cortisone

I've injected all of my scars with hydrocortisone, and had great results. Even a rather nasty one inside my lip from a skiing accident. The tougher ones just take a few rounds of injection.

I see no point in paying a dermatologist $80 to do something I can do with a $0.30 needle and a $5 vial of cortisone from an online pharmacy.

Granted, I also surgically excised every mole over 2mm on my body a few months ago for cosmetic purposes. I might be a bit cavalier on DIY medicine.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

There is a thread exactly like this one that is older and has a bunch of good replies already, so I'm going to just merge this with the other thread. Please use the search engine before creating literal duplicate threads as others.

-->Merged

 

[DrinksWithEvil]

ya thats a very small track that you can play off as being a burn,or say you got staples there.If anyone notcies at all. I would be stoked to only have that ><

 

[TweakerBirdie]

There is a thread exactly like this one that is older and has a bunch of good replies already, so I'm going to just merge this with the other thread. Please use the search engine before creating literal duplicate threads as others.

-->Merged

Sorry, I'm not very forum-savvy yet. Thanks for moving my post for me

 

[The Lone Deranger]

Ive been an iv user for 11 yrs on and off, and to be honest when i first looked at the photo i thought that looks like a healed burn, honestly without you saying its from injecting im pretty sure no one would guess how you realy got it, and would likely just presume it was a burn mark.

After my first 2 years i started to have more and more trouble with injecting, as vein after vein started to collapse so i have had to sit and try and try again to get a shot on hundreds of occasions, prob more ! but i must be lucky as ive no lasting scars realy at all, i think differant people have slightly differant skin, and pigments etc, prob why your mark is still pink and fresh looking after so long of abstaining, But like said in all honesty it realy doesnt look like drug abuse, if anyone asked i would say i was burnt by a friend with a cigarette by accident when they were drunk in a bar or somthing like that.

 

[manboychef]

I can't say I don't miss the ritual, but what I have now is so much more important to me. I know I could very easily go back. I know what will happen if I do.

 

[AstrangeBrew]

I was wondering.......
So in multiple places where I have shot up, mostly the inside of my elbow, I have these almost blueish dots. They're darker than any of the scarring around them, like it looks like someone tattooed a period on me. I don't have that many, maybe 8 or so, but I was just curious if anyone else had these? Does anyone know what causes them, what they're from???

as for the tattoo idea to cover them up, I think a tattoo will just draw more attention to the area and like someone said earlier, an employer will have more of a problem with a tattoo, than a scar that they may or may not notice.

I got a tattoo mark from a jsmmed set my bf fixed usin a lighter, in nj you couldn't get sets easily in south jersey so you had to deal with what you had sometimes

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

The main reason I started getting tattooed was to cover up scars/hide fresh tracks. Of course, you use long enough, you eventually have to start going in your hands and shit, which I can't ever get tattooed as I work in the business world. So, I was good for a while hiding everything my tattoos but now my hands are all cut up. Price of playing the game unfortunately.

Like I said, the best way to get rid of scars is to not get them by practicing good technique. Some level of marks are unavoidable, but they can get way way worse if you don't take care of yourself.

 

[Toz]

Did the tattoos work well for hiding the scars? Post some pictures if you want to (but I understand completely if you don't), I've been considering this myself. I have one really ugly scar on my left arm I want to cover up from an abscess, it is still red now after 3 years and looks fucking hideous.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Did the tattoos work well for hiding the scars? Post some pictures if you want to (but I understand completely if you don't), I've been considering this myself. I have one really ugly scar on my left arm I want to cover up from an abscess, it is still red now after 3 years and looks fucking hideous.

Yeah they worked very well. I got the entire inside of my arms done with a bunch of big black and grey tattoos. Of course, after I got them, I kept IV'ing into them so more scars started to form on top of the tattoos and eventually it starts to literally make the ink disappear and the scars show through. But the tattoos themselves are still so dark that you can only see that upon closer inspection.

 

[Toz]

Yeah they worked very well. I got the entire inside of my arms done with a bunch of big black and grey tattoos. Of course, after I got them, I kept IV'ing into them so more scars started to form on top of the tattoos and eventually it starts to literally make the ink disappear and the scars show through. But the tattoos themselves are still so dark that you can only see that upon closer inspection.

Ok well that won't be of any concern to me as I'm not putting any more dope in those veins since they are long gone. :/ Fucking cocaine I should have stuck to the dope.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Ok well that won't be of any concern to me as I'm not putting any more dope in those veins since they are long gone. :/ Fucking cocaine I should have stuck to the dope.

Yeah coke is a real killer on the veins. I've collapsed many from serious IV coke binges.

 

[sicboy2]

I can corroborate that, at least in my experience, applying pressure afterwards for up to a minute seems to reduce bruising and other issues. After a few days of a coke IV binge I find that not only are veins almost impossible to hit but even when I have success, the area seems to leak (or swell up with blood) after I withdraw the needle. It's never happened with heroin so I'm guessing it has to do with the CNS effects of cocaine. Is their any technique to minimize or alleviate that?

 

[Ridethecircuswheel]

CLEAN and now need HELP with trackmarks

Hello Bluelight,

Ok I apologize now for posting something thats probably been covered a lot on this forum but I seem to feel different from a lot of IV users because out of all the IV users I know personally their tracks don't come close to appearing as horrible as mine do.

A quick background of me is I've been a dope user for 2 years now. I was a daily user until I got arrested this past December and my family found out I was addicted to heroin instead of pills (which is what I told them) and as soon as I got out of jail I went straight into rehab and was put on Suboxone. When I got to jail my tracks were so noticeable my cellmates were coming up to me saying "Man you gotta stop doing that boy so much" because I lived in a city where you needed a perscription to get syringes and basically I just reused the same ones all the time (I know it's not good) so after rehab I had an 8 inch dark line going down the top of my forearm (very noticeable) and after being on suboxone for 5 months and not using a needle ONCE it started to look as if the long line of repeatedly stabbed track marks on my arm was starting to vanish. It seemed that way because summer was starting and in sunlight tracks don't look bad but for some reason on a rainy gloomy day they stuck out like a sore thumb.

Well, I got off of suboxone and started tapering off with loperamide (worked perfectly) and one night me and my fiancee of 5 years were out walking and she got struck and killed by a car right in front of me and died in my arms. This really messed me up and I dove directly back into the dope use because it was too much to handle and now I'm at another turning point in my life where I truely want to be sober again and I last used 3 days ago so I'm going cold turkey but the tracks aren't only on my forearm anymore they're all the way up and they DO NOT look like they're going away. I've become obsessed with looking at them and every time I see them it makes me want to use because i'm so afraid of practically going through like with the words "ex heroin addict" stamped on my forehead beacuse of these tracks.

I posted this to find out what kind of stuff/creams/makeup ACTUALLY work for people. I don't want to read a review on some website that was written on the company. I am not against using makeup every day if it means I can walk around with confidence once again. I asked my mom and she has" Maderma for kids" and i wish it wasn't "for kids" because to me it feels like i'm taking a baby aspirin when I should be taking 800 mg ibuprofen for a headache, see the comparison? It's oozy purple cream and i just started using it today. I want to do everything I can to make them atleast not noticeable.

Thank you very much. If anyone has any questions just ask.

 

[missmeyet?]

There is Mederma that is not for kids I'm pretty sure..and some people swear by it though I have no personal experience with it.

As far as makeup goes, is it mostly discolorations you need to cover or is it more like scars, indentations etc?

 

[neversickanymore]

Hey Ridetcw.. congratulations on making the decision to get yourself clean again. I'm so sorry for what happened to your fiance.. My esxpsierince as well as many others experiences I know is that the scars will first fade to the collar of the skin and then smooth and soften over time. If you have any abscess marks they will probably remain visible for a while, but over a relatively short period of time you scars will fade from the darker shade the are most likely now to the shade of your skin.. and if they are raised or rough they will flatten and smooth out to become something hardly noticeable at all. If you want to see an example look for an older scar you have from something you rememebr in your childhood, you will likely be able to bareilly see a slight slight discoloration where the scar has basically disappeared back into the normal skin. So in other words I wouldnt worry about this much, and please dont use it as a source of guilt and shame, guilt and shame just drive use so please throw the guilt and shame in a deep part of the ocean and instead focus on the pride you should have about the steps you are taking to get clean.. In a couple months you tracks wont be that bad anymore and you will be able to start wearing short sleeves and they will continue to heal and disappear until only a very close inspection will reveal anything. focus on healing yourself and dont worry about the track marks as they will fade and disappear.

 

[SineWaveSoldier]

I had long tracks in each of my arms on top and my forearms. I lived in a small town and couldn't easily get rigs.
After a few years of not using or barely using everything is gone except an inch and a half track on my right arm. And I put that one through hell. I'm talking using one of those big guage livestock needles one time. The ones with a 3 inch needle. It was fucked up. They will go away trust me. Might take a year or so.

Oh maderma, vitamin E, and cover up works. Just match it to ur skin tone

 

[stardust.hero]

Moved TDS --> OD

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

We have an entire thread dedicated to track marks. Please use the search engine before creating threads.

Merged.

 

[Ridethecircuswheel]

Yeah sorry I have a bad habit of making threads because I feel like a lot of the threads dont raise specific questions. The reason I made my own was because out of everyone i know I have a certain kind of track and ive seen 2 decade dope users with tracks better looking than mine .

As an update: I got this makeup from my friend called MAybelinne age rewind Eraser for dark circles.. it's pretty good at covering them up theres a sponge thing at the top and you just rub it over it. in certain lights it makes it more noticeable and i noticed being outside on a rainy day is a no no for track marks. I also use maderma. thanks!