Tattoo Removal Is Now As Simple As Rubbing On A Cream

Alec Falkenham, a 27-year-old PhD student in the university's pathology department, is developing a topical cream that he says will make tattoo ink eventually fade away.

How it works

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.

There's no injection and no inflammation, and Falkenham says the tattoo should fade away.

Falkenham is working with the university's Industry Liaison and Innovation office to patent his technology. He and the ILI office have secured funding through Springboard Atlantic and Innovacorp Early Stage Commercialization Fund for his research.

"Alec is a trail blazer in tattoo removal. He came to ILI with an idea, tangentially related to his graduate research, that had real-life applicability," said Andrea McCormick, manager, health and life sciences at ILI in a news release.

"His initial research has shown great results and his next stage of research will build on those results, developing his technology into a product that can eventually be brought to market."

He doesn't yet know how many applications will be required to completely fade a tattoo. He's testing the cream on tattooed pig's ears.

Falkenham says it will be much safer than laser tattoo removal.

He's not sure when the cream will be available commercially.

Falkenham estimates a tattoo removal treatment will cost four cents per square centimetre — a 10-by-10-centimetre area would cost approximately $4.50 per treatment. The cream will work best on tattoos that are more than two years old, he adds.

A Teen Was Charged With Murder After Uploading A Selfie With The Victim’s Body To Snapchat

A Pennsylvania teenager has been accused of murdering a classmate and posing with the victim’s body for a “selfie,” according to news reports.

Authorities say 16-year-old Maxwell Marion Morton of Jeannette, Pa., fatally shot 16-year-old Ryan Mangan in the face before taking a photo with Mangan’s body and uploading it to Snapchat, a smartphone application that allows users to send images that are deleted a few seconds after they’re received, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Morton sent the image to a friend, who saved it on his phone before it was deleted, according to Fox News. The friend showed the photo to his mother, who turned the image over to police, according to Fox News.

Jay Z splashes out $56 million on Spotify rivals WiMP and Tidal

Jay Z must be in a digital music empire state of mind.

The hip-hop mogul has made a $56 million bid for Scandinavian company Aspiro, which operates streaming music company Tidal in the U.S. and elsewhere including Canada and the U.K., and the WiMP music service in Norway, Sweden and other parts of Europe.

Both services offer high resolution audio -- the equivalent of the quality of CDs -- beyond that of typical services such as Pandora and Spotify. Subscription fees are a bit higher, too, at $20 monthly.