Greetings one and all,
I've probably read everything on this web site, and finally decided to go for it. Made my order today, and was promptly informed that it's on it's way today.  So I took some "before" pictures, and I'll see if I can post them here.
 
I probably have Type II skin, although to look at the pictures my skin looks almost translucent, showing blood veins at varying depths. Skin tone is a blue-ish pink, and if I go out into the sun I will burn, peel and then freckle. I have reddish brown hair and green eyes, but my ancestry has a strong streak of fair-skinned redheads through it.
 
I've decided to give it a go, and even though I really dislike the needle part, I figure if diabetic kids can do it, I don't have an excuse to be a coward. I'm so tired of wearing long sleeves and pants all through the summer in the desert, having people ask, "Aren't you hot dressed like that?"  Duh. They surely must look at me strange while I work out at the gym, all dressed up in sweats from head to toe. Everyone else has on shorts and tank tops. There is just no way I'm doing that. Muscle tone is not my problem, being bright pinkish-blue is my problem.
 
The final deciding factor for deciding to try melanotan II was a particular halter-top dress I bought, intending to wear it for my sweety this summer, but once I got it home, the idea of having to show off my pasty white skin killed that idea. That, and the discovery that my sweety was actively hunting online for someone new helped kill that idea, too.      In the meantime, the dress remains in the closet, my sweety is gone and summer is fading away.
 
That means I have plenty of time to get ready for next summer! I am so jazzed about actually being able to wear shorts next summer without that blinding glare.
 
Anyway, here is what I plan to do, please correct, comment, confirm as you see fit.
 
After reconstituting the 10mg powder (or whatever form it comes when purchased) with 100 syringe marks of BAC water,  if I draw 5 syringe marks of reconstituted peptide twice a day I will be using 0.5mg of reconstituted peptide twice a day, for a total of 1.0mg peptide loading per day.
 
Continue doing 0.5mg twice a day, every day, maybe every other day, depending on side effects, until a total of approximately 50mg of the peptide has been used before even considering any efforts at UV exposure. This schedule should allow me to "load up" on melanin sufficiently to get a response to UV exposure, hopefully not so fast as to pop out with all those spots.
 
Do I have that right?
 
Now for the pictures...
 
Uh oh, lightning storm. Pictures later.
 

Oh that looks so lovely let's do another...  

Welcome _Blue_ to the forums. You're off to a good start with your log here. I'm curious about which desert you find yourself living at/near?
 
-Scott

Sounds beautiful. It will interesting to see how being able to tan will change your life being a pale person living in a sun drenched locale. How did you originally hear about melanotan II?
 
-Scott

It just occurred to me that you're a neighbor to the state of Arizona. The melanotan peptides were discovered at the University of Arizona.
 
-Scott

The Stuff arrived on Wednesday, but I didn't discover it until Thursday. I'm too pooped from the gym to do anything but eat and sleep tonight, and I want to wait for the weekend to see how it goes with the first round, sides and all.
 
Woo!

Couldn't remember my password to get back in here!  
 
Anyway, I've had two shots now. First was .5 mg  Saturday eve around 8:45 p.m., and it was a rather anti-climactic non-event. Itched under the skin for a few minutes. About five minutes later, after it sunk in to my head what I'd just done (injected MYSELF for the first time), that's when I got a little light-headed. Wimp.
 
Sunday morning I woke up with really red eyes, don't know if that was a side effect, or the result of falling asleep with the TV on all night.  
 
Another .5 mg Sunday morning.
 
So, for the ongoing record:
 
10/18/08     .5 mg     Total in:  0.5 mg
10/19/08     .5 mg     Total in:  1.0 mg
 
I think I may do a brief twice-a-day runup for a few days, and then back off to once a day to let the stuff sort of 'even out' slowly. I don't want to load up too fast and start breaking out in spots, and I'd have some 'splainin' to do if I start showing any color too soon, especially now that it's going into winter. Who tans in the winter??  

I only have maybe three or four actual moles but they resemble large freckles, with none on my face.  My freckles are more or less faded to appear to run together. If I broke out in spots I'd have some 'splainin' to do to She Who Notices Things. I'm hoping to sneak up on some color and be ready for summer, all without invoking the curiosity of my sister. She would probably NOT understand the needle thing.
 
The way I understand these spots other people are getting (and I could very well be misunderstanding it), it sounds like too much too fast produces  an unabsorbed excess of melanotan that breaks out at the surface, under the skin, similar to blisters.  I'm thinking if I go slow enough, I can avoid them altogether, but not go so slow that I don't make any progress.
 
 
 

After reading that again, I'm thinking I might be slightly 'under-dosing', but maybe not.
 
After this morning's dose, I have not exactly an upset stomach, but more of a nervous stomach. Red eyes went away after half an hour. Must've been the result of not getting a good night's sleep because of the TV.  
 
As far as getting the skin screenings, I've been doing that all along because I've had serious burns as a kid at the beach.

Yes, butterflies is another way to put it.