PhD student creating pain-free way to erase tattoos

If that tribal tattoo that was so edgy in 1999 isn't cutting it today, you'll be happy to know it could soon be removed by using a topical cream.

Since getting his first tattoo, scientist Alec Falkenham has been fascinated by the connection between pathology and the tattooing process, and is busy concocting a topical cream that could eventually be used to erase tattoos. The PhD student at Dalhousie University in Halifax calls his method bisphosphonate liposomal tattoo removal, and says the cream penetrates the skin to kill cells with tattoo pigment while not harming the surrounding cells. "You're destroying the skin in the process of all the other techniques I've seen so far," Falkenham told The Canadian Press. "What we're trying to do is stay away from actually destroying the skin while still removing the tattoo."

So far, Falkenham has only tried the cream on mice, but he hopes to start working on bigger animals like pigs in the near future. He's not sure yet how many treatments will be necessary to remove tattoos from people, but knows it will be affordable; as the cream is now, it costs 4.5 cents per square centimeter of treatment area.

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