Not to say “I told you so”, but I’ve always had my suspicions about tattoo removal creams. I mean, first of all, any cream that is claiming to be capable of removing ink from beneath your skin has a daunting task ahead of it. Mainly because it’s ink under your skin and the thought of some cream that you smear around on your skin being able to just make that ink vanish just kind of reeks of a whole lot of impossible.
But wait! A lot of these creams have really strong chemicals and “peeling agents” in them that work overtime to take that ink right out. Great. But doesn’t rubbing strange and obviously very powerful chemicals into your skin seem like a bad idea? Well it sure as hell does to me. And apparently, it does to the Australians as well.
According to some skin experts, some tattoo removal creams can end up making your tattoo look worse instead of removing it.
‘But experts warn that the creams, some of which contain the bleaching chemical hydroquinone or the skin-peeling trichloroacetic acid, may not meet Australian standards for health and beauty products and can end up costing much more than professional removal.
Pramod Parmar, a laser specialist from the Manly Cosmetic and Laser Clinic, said bleaching creams could make tattoos look worse.
”The ink has basically gone inside and penetrated the dermal layer, and a cream cannot go deep enough to release the pigment from there,” he said.
Dr Parmar said creams or other removal methods, including the injection of other chemicals to break down the tattoo, could cause the ink to smudge instead of removing it.’
Granted, the skin experts interviewed in this article all seem to work for various different laser removal joints and would arguably not want people using products cheaper than laser removal simply because it affects their business. But regardless of that idea, I’m going to go ahead and say that if you’re thinking about removing a tattoo and you don’t have the cash to get it lasered, wait until you do. This cream stuff just seems like a really bad idea.