There is a lot of information and advertising on the internet about creams for tattoo fading or removal.  We won’t go into names, but some of these make outlandish claims that they are extremely effective and very safe too.  At Tattoo MD, we do not use these products for several reasons.

Dr. Kaplan personally tested Wrecking Balm after he got a tattoo put on but found absolutely no change with treatment.  Also, when you think about it, how would it be possible for such creams to work?  Traditional “fading creams” work by blocking the action of the enzyme that makes melanin.  So obviously that wouldn’t work for tattoo removal.  The problem with a tattoo is a physical substance that is present deep in the skin and has to be moved out or away somehow.  If the lotion is a strong acid, it can work by burning away the skin, but that would be impossible to do without giving you a deep scar.  So any lotion that purports to “fade” the ink is highly dubious, in our opinion.  Also, there are no studies published in standard medical literature on the use of such lotions.

So for now, stick with what is proven and FDA-approved – laser tattoo removal.  Find out how laser tattoo removal works on our tattoo removal page.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Laser tattoo removal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.