Beware of these products

There are several tattoo removal review sites if you just happen to be researching the best product to remove a tattoo. Some obviously have an axe to grind which means they may not be as objective as they pretend to be.

I’m interested in tattoos, how they are made, different designs, new technology pigments that don’t fade, but I don’t necessarily want people to know about this little hobby I’ve developed. I can sit at a computer for hours looking at tattoos. I found a site called Checkoutmyink.com where people send in pictures of their tattoos, it’s  interesting to see what people have carved into their skin and where they put it. I can’t help but think some of those folks are really going to regret some of those locations one day and that means they’ll be looking for some way to get rid of the thing and they won’t know the first thing about removing a tattoo. That’s where these review sites come in handy.

In a former life I must have been a blood hound because I like back tracking all these tattoo removal products and their claims, investigating who the companies are, what other products they sell, where they are located, the guarantees they offer and even the ingredients that they claim makes their product the one for you. I mean, it’s really amazing what you can find out from a tattoo removal review site.

From reading forum posts, blogs, reading ingredient lists and looking up the individual ingredients of each product you would be surprised, maybe even shocked at what some companies try to pass off as something that will remove a tattoo.

The Big Kahuna

WreckingBalm claims the big, bad ingredient in their product is Salicylic Acid. LOL, salicylic acid, it turns out,  is the main ingredient in pimple medicine so how do you get from removing zits to removing tats? Must be the little exfoliator they sell with the cream. An exfoliator is a fancy term for a sander. I don’t know what their directions say to use first, the sander or the zit cream, but I just don’t understand how that will remove a tattoo that was carved deep into your skin. Makes me think their sales claims are a bit overstated for the price they charge. Their customer base must consist of people that didn’t do their homework, but it’s their money!

Wreckingbalm must be the biggest selling do it yourself tattoo removal product in the United States, maybe the world for all I know. From what I’ve read Wreckingbalm sells much of their product over the phone and according to many of the forum postings I have read, their sales force consists of some of the most rude people around. Some potential customers were shocked at how rude the Wreckingbalm rep was over the phone, especially if they were undecided or decided not to buy, they became real assholes. Kind of like a used car salesman with a short fuse. For that reason, combined with the main ingredient being a zit removal product, I’d have to recommend against buying the stuff.

My WreckingBalm tattoo removal review is a big negative, don’t  buy it.

New Product/Big Claims = Full of Crap

I hate to be blunt, but there is a new self described tattoo removal gel that makes claims about how easy it is to use, how it won’t  scar your skin like TCA or Laser or whatever other product they are in competition with for a share of the tattoo removal market. You just rub it on once or twice a day and Presto!!…your tattoo just fades away like magic. All you have to do is keep sending them money until their magic has worked on you. I call major league B.S. on that.

The product I’m describing is called TatMed and if you knew what was in it (just keep reading) you’ll have the biggest laugh ever.

I found this out by reading one of many tattoo removal review sites. Tatmed is the twin brother of a product called Medliten and get this. Medliten is a skin bleaching product. They have a regular website and they also have a WordPress website  at  Medliten.wordpress.com, and this is where the fun begins. TatMed and Medliten have an identical ingredient list, they are one and the same product with different labels, packaging and uses.

Medliten promotes itself as a skin bleaching product to be used on some very weird locations. Their wordpress website says it’s good to use for vaginal bleaching, anal bleaching, nipple bleaching and penis bleaching.

Hell, I’ve lived longer than I care to admit and I never heard of bleaching any of those places. Isn’t a vagina a kind of interior location? Why bleach one? I just don’t get it. An anus? What the hell? Maybe a bleached anus is popular among certain gay guys, but really, is something like that in high demand? I’ve never heard of doing it and whoever came up with the idea must have had his/her head up to many asses. Must have been a politician. Nipple bleaching – forget it.  And last but not least, penis bleaching?…you’ve got to be kidding. The only truly white dick I ever heard of had a name and it was Moby the great white whale. He swam around trying to evade Captain Ahab until they had a head on collision, which the whale happened to win. Ahab was killed by  Moby Dick, the first bleached white dick in recorded history.

Holy crap, what is the world coming to when someone tries to promote a tattoo removal gel that in reality was originally made to bleach sex organs, nipples and poop shoots. I just don’t see how the stuff could possibly remove a tattoo carved deep into the skin, and I’m sure it doesn’t. The next thing they’ll probably do is try to sell it as a stain remover,  like OxyClean.

Tatmed tattoo removal review- do not buy.  LOL, this stuff is a joke, the whoopie cushion of tattoo removal products. If you buy this stuff to remove a tattoo you’ve got to be an idiot.

Add to: | blinklist | del.cio.us | digg | yahoo! | furl | rawsugar | shadows | netvouz

Photo of an old sailors' tattoo

I remember reading 3 or 4 years ago about a guy in Australia, I think he owned a bar. His will included a provision that when he died he would be partially skinned and his hide hung from a prominent spot on the wall of the bar. As I recall, his son inherited the bar and if he didn’t follow through with this stipulation the bar would be sold or something, but I think the son would not end up with the bar. Well, as you can imagine, the son followed his fathers’ wishes and decorated the interior with old Dads’ hide. The point was the Dad was very proud of his tattoos and wanted them to outlast him. To this day I suppose the old mans’ skin is still hanging on the wall – great conversation piece, I’m sure.

How many people are that proud of their tattoos these days? Seems like you hear more about people wanting to remove tattoos (guilty) than you do of people who are happy with their body art and would be willing to “donate” a piece of themselves after they are dead and gone to who ever would be willing to accept the gift. If there is a a tattoo museum somewhere this might be a good way for people to leave a bit of themselves behind and a good way for future anthropologists to study to the art. For those with out kids and no way to be remembered long after they are dead maybe this is the answer. For the really whacked out human canvas there is always the option of taxidermy, kind of like Madame Tussauds Wax Museum of famous people except these would be the actual people preserved for posterity, a perverse gift that just keeps on giving.

***

Add to: | blinklist | del.cio.us | digg | yahoo! | furl | rawsugar | shadows | netvouz

My father was/is a biker. He’s getting up there in years now and doesn’t ride as much as he used to, that’s why I put the was/is in there. Once a biker always a biker. When the weather is not to hot or cold he’ll go out just to feel the wind on his face again, but nothing long distance, just little ride around the general area where he lives. Back in the day he had a group of , I’ll call them friends, and they were hell raisers, to put it mildly. Most of those guys are dead, most not from old age though, just stupidity usually. Since my Dad is one of the last survivors of the group he enjoys it when he can ride with another graybeard, like back in the old days.

Back in the sixties when my father was in his early 30′s he did things that were not real popular, like getting tattoos, he’s got tattoos everywhere. Naturally boys want to emulate their fathers so I am covered with tattoos, a human canvas. I like most of ‘em but the ones on my hands and maybe up my wrist a bit – I wish I didn’t have those because in certain settings they really give the impression that I’m…uh…an outlaw kind of guy, which I am not. I’ve done things I shouldn’t have, but I’ve never spent one night in jail, for which I am very thankful considering some of the stupid things I did as a kid. Once I got married and had my own kids I settled down thanks to my fathers advice when he used himself as an example of how not to live your life because society frowns on certain activities and being involved with the wrong people can only bring misery. Family comes first.

I don’t have money to throw around and work has slowed, but I got in my head I had to get rid of my hand tats. I don’t want to stand out and get weird looks sometimes when I meet someone for the first time or just out with the wife.  I should have done this while the kids were growing up to set a better example is my personal feeling about it, but now is the time for me. I bought Nuviderm because I could afford it. I started on my left hand only because I’m right handed and that’s the hand I used to put the stuff on with. These tats are 20 years old and just black ink and I can see that the two words and symbol are going away. I’d have to give positive feed back about progress, my nuviderm review is positive. The old ink is going away, but the skin above the tattooed area isn’t quite as brown as it was, but I’d rather have skin that’s a little lighter in color than the tattoo that was there.

Anyway, for me,  nuviderm works and it’s an affordable tattoo removal product that I have recommended to others and since I’m almost a gray beard like my dad, they seem to listen.  I wouldn’t say I’m a wise man but experience is worth something, no matter how diffucult the lesson.