A tattoo removal cream has been reportedly invented by a 27 year old PhD student in Canada. Alex Falkenham, is currently pursuing a PhD in pathology at the Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he is likely to threaten the expensive tattoo removal industry.
Falkenham is currently testing the product on tattooed years of pigs and he reportedly got some great results. He even underlined the fact that his ink works especially well when it comes to ink that’s more than two years old.
“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. (…) When new macrophages come to remove the liposome from cells that once contained pigment, they also take the pigment with them to the lymph nodes, resulting in a fading tattoo,”
Falkenham explained.
The cream is supposedly based on the natural healing processes that the skin undergoes after it is tattooed for the first time.
Now here’s what happens: whenever you get a tattoo, the skin starts absorbing the ink that’s then consumed, or eaten up by some white blood cells called macrophages. This new cream reportedly targets the macrophages that contain the pigment and still remain at the site of the tattoo.
By using this particular cream, any tattoo should just fade away without inflammation or any other side effects.
For now Falkenham is trying to patent his technology and claimed he has secured funding for it. But until things get moving he keeps testing it on pig’s ears. As far as FAQ are concerned, one can’t help but wonder how many applications are needed in order to remove one tattoo. Hopefully not so many.
The technology used for developing this cream is referred to as Bisphosphonate Liposomal Tattoo Removal, which essentially targets the pigment of the tattoo. It is believed to release new macrophages that consume the ones that have absorbed the ink from the tattoo.
Falkenham believes that using the revolutionary tattoo removal cream would cost around $4.50 for a 4-by-4-inch tattoo.
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