When I finally revealed to my mother that I’d gotten a tattoo, she was devastated. She gave me the standard parent spiel, about how stupid a decision it was, how I’d regret it, and she capped it off with the refrain familiar to all people who get tattoos: “What will you think of it when you are 70?”
“Well, mom,” I said, “I imagine by the time I’m that old, they’ll have found a way to remove them.”
Now, I have no desire to remove my tattoos. I love them. But I was right. Way right. I may not even need to wait at all, because it sounds like soon you will be able to remove your tattoos simply by applying a cream. Rub on, rub off.
The CBC has a feature on 27-year-old Alec Falkenham, who invented the product, and he think it could be revolutionary.
“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,” he said.
Here’s the scientific explanation for what it does. Presented by Science:
During tattooing, ink is injected into the skin. The ink initiates an immune response, and cells called “macrophages” move into the area and “eat up” the ink.
The macrophages carry some of the ink to the body’s lymph nodes. But some of those macrophages that are filled with ink stay put, embedded in the skin. That’s what makes the tattoo visible under the skin.
Falkenham’s topical cream works by targeting the macrophages that have remained at the site of the tattoo. New macrophages move in to consume the previously pigment-filled macrophages and then migrate to the lymph nodes, eventually taking all the dye with them.
Sick. Falkenham’s cream is expected to be cheap, too. A four inch by four inch tattoo would cost only $5 to remove, down from several hundred bucks for laser removal of a similar size.
And imagine what shit The Science will come up with in the next few decades. So worry not. Ever again. Get drunk and get tatted. Contract venereal disease. For The Science has found a way to eliminate regrets.
[H/T Elite Daily]