Student Alex Falkenham creates tattoo removal cream that fades body art

Removing a tattoo is more difficult, more expensive, and arguably more painful than actually getting one, but a 27-year-old Canadian student, Alex Falkenham, plans to change all this. The PhD student has created a topical cream that can easily and painlessly remove tattoos for a jaw-dropping low cost.

Tattoos work by depositing ink into the deepest layer of skin, the dermis, with a needle, Dr. Claudia Aguirre, an LA neuroscientist explained in a recent TedTalk on the subject explained. While you may think of your tattoo as a work of art, your body views it as an intruder who needs to be eliminated.

The immune system sends out special cells called macrophages to “clean up” the infection (i.e. your new tattoo). They aborb the ink and transport it to the lymph nodes, where both the cells and the ink they contain are permanently eliminated. Unfortunately, not all of the macrophages are able to make it to the lymphatic system. These ink-soaked cells remain lodged in the dermis. Although the ink may fade slowly over time, for the most part it’s permanent.

Knowing this, Falkenham came up with an ingenious idea: help to introduce new macrophages to finish off the job. His cream promotes new macrophages to come and finish the job by clearing away the remaining ink. Extreme Tech reported that after enough application the cream should help to clear away most of the ink from the original tattoo, causing far less pain and residual scarring than laser tattoo treatment.

Falkenham believes his cream will work best on tattoos that are at least two years old, but so far it has only been tested on the tattooed ears of pigs. For now, Falkenham is still working on perfecting his solution and making it safe for human use. 

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