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Researcher Developing Tattoo Removal Cream
BarbaraHudson writes During tattooing, ink is injected into the skin, initiating an immune response, and cells called "macrophages" move into the area and "eat up" the ink. The macrophages carry some of the ink to the body's lymph nodes, but some that are filled with ink stay put, embedded in the skin. That's what makes the tattoo visible under the skin. Dalhousie Uiversity's Alec Falkenham is developing a topical cream that works by targeting the macrophages that have remained at the site of the tattoo. New macrophages move in to consume the previously pigment-filled macrophages and then migrate to the lymph nodes, eventually taking all the dye with them. "When comparing it to laser-based tattoo removal, in which you see the burns, the scarring, the blisters, in this case, we've designed a drug that doesn't really have much off-target effect," he said. "We're not targeting any of the normal skin cells, so you won't see a lot of inflammation. In fact, based on the process that we're actually using, we don't think there will be any inflammation at all and it would actually be anti-inflammatory."
Got a tattoo in college. I really liked it for about 10 years, then I decided I was done with it and wanted to move on to another phase of my life. So I did laser removal, and I would say it's 99% gone. You'd have to be pretty close and know where to look to find any trace of it. In short, I rubbed a thousand dollars on it and it came right off!
I don't think so. When I was a college student it never occurred to me that I would want to remove the tattoo. It perfectly suited me, and I didn't understand that I would change over time and outgrow the tattoo. This is how kids think. They think that the way things are will remain forever. Forever young!
Some advice for people considering this path -- only get a black ink tattoo. They are much easier to remove than a colored tattoo. The laser has to be tuned to the wavelength of the ink color, so if you have a tattoo that is black, red and green then you need to hit it with three separate lasers and the way one color responds may be different than other colors.
Also, set your expectations. By the time my treatments were complete (6 treatments, each 6 weeks apart), the tattoo was about 2/3 faded. then my body flushed the rest out over the following year. So I can't complain!