A quick call for critique

[Flagpole]

G'day all!

I am just looking for quick critique on the effect I applied to this image. The main difference is in Sample 2 I removed some of the skin blemishes and some white noise which crept into the picture. What do you guys think. Should I go with the original or the edited version. I also included B/W shot to see if anyone finds that to be a better option.

Sample 1 (original with filter applied)

http://members.oztralia.com/~bfeldman/Testshots/Tattoo/sample1.jpg

Sample 2 (removed some of the noise around tattoo and reduced skin blemishes)

http://members.oztralia.com/~bfeldman/Testshots/Tattoo/sample2.jpg

Sample 3 (B/W copy of the original filter)

http://members.oztralia.com/~bfeldman/Testshots/Tattoo/sample3.jpg

Appologies for the big size of the images. The original picture is located at http://members.oztralia.com/~bfeldman/Testshots/Tattoo/original.jpg

Thanks,

Flagpole
Sydney, Australia

P.S. Thanks to Glen Mitchell for his wonderful frame action for Photoshop.