UFU 2015/2

Tattoo Regret? A Topical Removal Cream May Help

By Paula Mejia

Tats all, folks: A Ph.D. student has developed a cream that targets cells, not pigments, to get rid of unwanted ink. Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters

Today, before getting inked, one must have a serious think so as to avoid tattoo remorse. In the future, though, you may not have to worry about laser removal, or surgery, or a touch-up tattoo for those inky regrets anymore, though. Alec Falkenham, a Ph.D. candidate at Halifax, Nova Scotia‘s Dalhousie University, has developed a painless tattoo removal cream that causes tats to gradually fade away.

The application of the cream, which he hopes will eventually become commercially available, involves none of the inflammation, redness, blistering or scarring side effects that traditional tattoo removal procedures can have, either. He believes the procedure might even be anti-inflammatory. All you have to do is apply the topical cream to your skin.

Unlike lasers, which target the pigments in tattoos, the Bisphosphonate Liposomal Tattoo Removal (BLTR) cream targets macrophages, immune system cells that work to rid foreign agents from your body. When you tattoo your body, you are injecting ink deep into the dermis—and the macrophages recognize tattoo ink as ―foreign‖ invaders. Some of these macrophages absorb the ink and then carry it to lymph nodes, where both cells and ink are destroyed.