Are any of the creams and topical treatments available very good for lightening/removing tattoos?
Usually, tattoo removal creams are not able to penetrate deep into the middle layer of the skin, and those that do cause much scarring.
A person came to us after he reported using TCA, waiting 3 months, then using TCA (the A is for acid) a second time. He is African American. He was trying to remove tattoos on the back of his hands to get into the ARMY.
He came to us 6 months after his last ACID application!!!! What did his skin look like? It was the most scarred I've ever seen. The area had keloided and appeared like something out of a horrror movie. His skin was so bad, we were afraid to treat it. We took pictures and discussed his case with our in-house medical director who operates a cosmetic laser treatment center at our location. We perform tattoo removal with the best lasers, and are separately insured. Dr T. said it was OK to treat but to try to go around the scar tissue.
The problem was that the skin on his hands was shiny from the damage caused by the acid damage. There was also white scarring where the tattoo ink was, which stood out on his dark skin. Where there was less white scarring, tattoo ink showed through.
He came back to us after 5 more months. At that point--11 months after his last acid application and 14 months after his first self-applied acid application--there was less scar tissue and less shine, but more dark tattoo ink was visible. Again, we photographed the area, and again consulted with our M.D. We lasered around his scar tissue to remove the tattoo ink.
Two months later we called asking if he was almost ready to schedule a second laser tattoo removal treatment. He said the tattoo ink is almost all gone!!!! We asked the patient on four separate occasions to please text us a picture, but he never responded. We don't know if the one laser treatment was enough, or whether he was embarrassed.
We have a few isolated patients who reported after one laser treatment their tattoo faded enough to be accepted into the Army. We find it hard to believe, unless the Army recently relaxed its requirements.
We use a 6000 picosecond laser with a patented “no hot spot laser output” made in Italy, for the least epidermal damage and most effectiveness. Please understand after our special lasers break up ink particles into tiny fragments, the body removes those pieces over time--a long period of time.
We employ multiple integrated techniques to assist the body in its job of removal, and perform individualized education on how a person can help. The latter is designed for those seeking the fastest, safest removal, and to result in the least risks and the best skin possible afterwards.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
We do not know of any creams that can or will work for tattoo removal.
The only proven method we know of is laser treatment and we have seen
hundreds of patients that have used these creams only to move to laser
treatment after the creams failed.
Regards,
Published on Jul 11, 2012