The premise behind tattoo fade creams is they are supposed to fade a tattoo simply by rubbing a cream over the tattooed area once or twice a day and after a few months your tattoo will be nothing but a memory. Well, I call BS on that claim and today I have more evidence that those claims are indeed false.



First we need to cover a bit of old ground to remind our readers how a tattoo fade cream works. Simply put, a tattoo fade cream whether it contain Hydroquinone, Alpha Arbutin, Kojic Acid or any other skin pigment inhibitor, limits or stops the production of skin pigment. When rubbed on the skin above a tattoo it fades the skin in the first layer of skin known as the epidermis and cannot penetrate any deeper. To the unenlightened, all tattoos are located in the second layer of skin known as the dermis. So while you may think your tattoo is fading it is just the skin pigment directly above the tattoo that is fading – not the tattoo pigment itself.

Well, now we have a skin fade product manufacturer in England who has admitted to that very fact. Skinlight, a British manufacturer of a skin fade cream called Meladerm (no relation to Nuviderm) states as a matter of fact on their website that skin fade creams do not and cannot penetrate beyond the first layer of skin into the second layer of skin where the tattoo pigment is located. They've blown the cover of the American companies claiming otherwise and Skinlight is made of the same basic ingredients as the newest and most advanced tattoo removal creams sold in the United States.

Here is the telling paragraph :

Does Meladerm® work on all kinds of hyperpigmentation?

“Hyperpigmentation can occur on many different layers of the skin. Though typically epidermal, hyperpigmentation can occasionally be dermal. Dermal pigmentation occurs underneath the skin where as epidermal is actually on the skin. In the case of dermal pigmentation, topical creams can not penetrate below the epidermis to alleviate the problem. Normally, the melanocytes are located in the basal layer of the epidermis and an increase in number or activity will cause epidermal hyperpigmentation. However, formed melanin may be transferred to the dermis or, in some cases, dermal melanocytes are present.”

So, there it is. Tattoo pigment is considered dermal pigmentation and unreachable by any known tattoo fade cream. For those of you considering buying a tattoo removal fade cream you need to understand that you are about to be taken for a ride that ends with a thinner wallet and a fully intact tattoo.

Products such as Wreckingbalm, which includes a small battery operated sander to be used in conjunction with their cream and Tatmed, which advises their customers to buy an exfoliation pad to aid in the tattoo removal. These two products rely on exfoliation as the method of tattoo removal, not the creams, but it's the monthly purchase of the creams by their customers that make them money.

Maybe one day soon there will be a cream that removes tattoo pigment, but that product does not currently exist.

Laser, ipl, Rejuvi and do it yourself tattoo removal products like Nuviderm are the only medically proven methods of tattoo removal on the market today. Just be sure to follow the easy to use instructions for the do it yourself products, they were written for a reason.