If you haven’t had success removing your tattoo with Wrecking Balm, here are seven things that the experts think you should know.
7 Tattoo Removal Tips
1. Modern day laser technology can get rid of most tattoos without scarring. 
2. It will take 6 to 12 laser treatments to completely remove a tattoo.
3. The toughest body parts to remove tattoos include the ankles, hands and fingers.
4. Older tattoos with less colors are easier to remove.
5. Lasers, surgical excision, and dermabrasion can all be used to remove tattoos.
6. Laser removal of tattoos can actually be a bit painful.
7. Nearly 20% of people who get tattoos eventually get them removed.
I don’t know about you but I’m holding off on getting a tattoo until the erasable microcapsule tattoo ink is available.
Do you have a tattoo that you want to have removed? Leave a comment and tell the rest of the Beauty Brains community
-Mid Brain
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
One of my crazy dreams is to use the tattoo needles to transfect the skin cells with different protein tags like GFP (green fluorecent protein). Then I’ll have a tattoo that only shows its colors when exposed to specific wavelengths of light =D
I’ll have the most awesome-est tattoo!
One of the easiest ways to remove a tattoo is to use the alpha-hydroxy lotions available at the drug store. The price or brand is not important – the cheapest ones will do the job as long as they have glycolic and/or saliscylic acids in them. When women have “permanent makeup” done, they are cautioned not to use these products because they will quickly fade the eybrows or lips.
To purposely get rid of a tattoo, you just apply the product 3 times per day. It may be slower than lasers but it certainly is a lot less expensive.
1MizLiz….
Does the alpha hydroxy lotions really work on dark tattoos on the ankle??
Thanks!
Judy,
Alpha-hydroxy lotions will work or dark tattoos. They may take a little longer than a lighter one, but it will eventually get rid of it. In the meantime you can disguise it, when needed, with a stick makeup such as Max Factor Pan-Stik. It provides good coverage, and dusted with a little translucent powder, has good staying power. Of course, you can always do what a friend of mine does, and cover it with a flesh colored band-aid. She actually loves hers but does not always want to display it, depending on who she is with, so she finds that the band-aid works very well.
Thanks for the quick response!!
Really…because I was thinking of going to a laser surgeon to get it done. What do you think?? It’s on my ankle and I can’t look professional or wear nice dresses for work..it’s ridiculous..what a mistake! I googled alpha hydroxy creams, but there are so many and it confuses me. Can you please suggest a brand? Thanks!!!
I used a product from RiteAid called Alpha Hydroxy Face Lotion. It has 8% Alpha Hydroxy acid (glycolic acid). It was not very expensive compared to some of the name brand products.
You should find that the alpha hydroxy acid (glycolic acid) is among the first couple of ingredients listed on the product to ensure that the concentration is great enough. The ingredients are listed in order of greatest to least amount. The first is usually water. It may also contain salycilic acid, stearic acid, sorbic acid, or other acids in addition to the glycolic acid.
Great Thanks!!! So you had a tattoo before and you tried this and it worked, I assume!
Thanx for the info. Im going to go buy some tomarrow & try it out. Im going to keep my fingers crossed. Hopefully it will work. Im curious to find out how the Alpha Hydroxy lotion work on your tattoos? Did it just fade it? Or is it barely noticable practically gone? or gone? I cant wait to try it. Thanx !
1MizLiz & Judy I would really like to find out if your results were good. I havent gotten to the store yet & was planning on getting some tomarrow. Please let me know. Thanx
I have had two treatments to have my tattoo removed. I got it when I was 16 and now that I’m in the nursing business, I don’t want my patients to see them. I have had two treatments and you can barely tell that it has done anything. I hope that the end result is better than what I’ve seen so far.
I just honestly don’t understand why people would want to get their tattoos removed! Tattoos are awesome and beautiful! Bet it hurts less getting one than removing it…BUT ANYWAY…I think everyone should be SMART about choosing THE RIGHT tattoo(s). Something you think you’ll never remove. Think future. So if everyone would do that…there would be less “tattoo removal” worries.
It’s nice to find others with an interest in any alternative means in removing tattoos. I’ve been searching for ways to purposely fade my permanent eyebrow makeup, and found this page:
http://www.wakeupwithmakeup.com/photos6.htm
A lady used Retin-A on a new eyeliner tattoo and was successful. The report suggests that any tattoo clinic can do a “dry run” over your tattoo to perforate the skin, and then you apply a prescribed Retin-A ointment (for acne or wrinkles) religiously for a number of days. I haven’t tried this yet, but I’m going to the drug store now.
I am also curious to find out if the AmLACTIN brand of the alpha hydroxy lotion will work to fade my tattoo,i just bought it yesterday upon seeinq this site . i qot six sayinqs on my wrist and only one of them came out neat and leqible,therefore i am lookinq to eliminate 5 of them,how lonq do you think this will take?,
any help is GREATLY appreciated(:
i just want to get rid of permanent tatoo which i have on my arm please suggest how can i do that.i tried so many things but nothing worked.
I plan to try the Alpha Hyroxy Face Lotion on a tattoo. Will keep posted to see if it works…
WOW! Deff. am trying to AHA! Going to get some right now :]
So does the alpha-hydroxy lotion actually work?
You will probably not be satisfied with the AHA lotion for tattoo removal.
Laser tattoo removal is painful and expensive. Some people get great results from the tattoo removal creams. It’s not a bad idea to try these first and if they work for you great, if not then go the laser route.
Not to be too contrarian, but i sincerely doubt that AHA will do ANYTHING to remove a tattoo. I wish someone on this message board would describe the mechanism of action of how these extremely weak acids, lotions, and creams are going to remove tattoo ink that is embedded in fibroblasts in the dermis or epidermal-dermal junction.
Tattoo removal is becoming so much like weight loss: people are looking for easy answers and quick solutions as an alternative to doing what they know they need to do: eat less, work out more. We try to find easy answers because we don’t want to face hard realities. It’s not right to have someone spend lots of money and lots of time and get their hopes up, just to have them realize six months down the road that the science behind laser tattoo removal (the theory of selective photothermolysis, the photo-acoustic effect, basics of human immune response, etc.) is a lot better than fake products and home cures that have never been tested, demonstrated, or proven.
We agree that laser tattoo removal is the only sure way to get it done.
Hi guys, just thought I would let ya’ll know that my boyfriend tried Tat B Gone to get rid of his tattoo. He used it for about a year to fade that thing away. Took a lot of patience and gets tedious have to apply it for so long but it worked real well for him. I can barely even see his tattoo anymore its so faded. I was skeptical myself but the stuff really works.
d0es aha really works for tattoo removal?tell me a specific name of this cream.and keep me update for other natural n easy ways to get rid of my tattoo.do warn me about the side effects too.
@Arena – There is no study that shows AHA will work to remove tattoos.
I’m a fourteen year old girl and i want to take out my tattoo with my nickname soooo bad.. I’m hiding it from my parents for so long and i can’t do it anymore. *crying*, i did it because most of my friends were getting it and i wanted to be in the crowd. I can’t walk around the house the way i want because of this.. so can you please help me. I don’t care about scars at this point. I’m just desperate.
thebeautybrains-
Scientific research has shown that there are alternative ways to remove tattoos, although these methods work best on amateur tattoos. Tetrinoin has worked to remove eyebrow tattoos. Different types of acids have been used in studies to remove tattoos-and they’ve had the same efficacy as lasers at the time. Mind you, I believe lasers have the best cosmetic result, people have successfully removed tattoos before the invention of lasers. No matter what method you choose, it will NOT happen over night, especially if you want to preserve your skin. I know TCA acid works but it took a period of TWO YEARS of consistent application to remove a small tattoo to the point that it was practically gone.
My wifeis using Tat B Gone to remove her awful mistake and save my sanity and make herself physicallt attractive to me again, she has been using it 2x a day religiously for a little over a month of course there are no results yet but it takes at least 4 months to start fading I really hope this works because laser cost 300$ per session and it takes 5-15 sessions, we really don’t want to go that route but I would be willing to sell everything I own to get rid of that ugly thing.