Remember when you thought it was a good idea to have the neighborhood kid put Yann Travaille-style tattoos on your forearm? Yeah, it wasn’t. And while surgical excision, dermabrasion, and laser removal have long existed as valid options for getting those remnants of awful life choices out of plain sight, it’s about to get a whole lot easier with the invention of a Tattoo Removal Cream.

Developed by Dalhousie University researcher Alec Falkenham (pictured above), it’s a topical cream that you simply apply to the unwanted tattoo, causing it to fade over time. It won’t cause any inflammation, too, making it both convenient and painless, compared to existing tattoo removal alternatives.

Alec’s Tattoo Removal Cream works by targeting the embedded white blood cells keeping the ink on the skin. When applied, it will trigger new cells to consume the ones currently in place holding the ink pigments. Those new cells eventually migrate to the lymph nodes, bringing all the colored dyes with them, fading the tattoo little by little with each application. Since it only targets specific cells with the ink pigment, it minimizes the chances of inflammation, as the rest of the skin in the area remains untouched. According to the inventor, a 10 x 10-centimeter application of the cream will only cost 4.5 Canadian cents.

Currently in the testing phase, the cream is currently being used to remove the dye from tattooed pig ears, a fitting guinea pig, considering how budding tattoo artists have long been told to practice their craft on the animal’s skin. That means, however, that he hasn’t moved on to human trials yet, so it’s likely still a while before a commercial product will ever hit the shelves.

Learn more from the link below.