Can Tattoos Be Removed Naturally?
Tattoo removal is known to be a painful and expensive process. However, lately, there seems to be a natural remedy for almost every problem. This might make you wonder if there is a way to remove tattoos naturally for cheap and effective tattoo removal?
There are various natural tattoo removal tricks you can try. Some of the natural tattoo removal remedies are using salt, honey, lemon juice, aloe vera gel, and sand powder. However, these natural remedies have varying results; and most are completely ineffective.
How can these ingredients remove a tattoo naturally? We will explain why some people claim these ingredients can remove a tattoo naturally and why many others argue these natural tattoo removal tricks are nonsense. In addition, we’ll share the best tattoo removal procedures available to give you a clear understanding of your options.
How Does Natural Tattoo Removal Work?
Various social media pages tell you there is a way to remove your tattoo naturally. These methods are straightforward enough and may be worth a try. However, they aren’t very effective at removing a tattoo, and here’s why.
When you get a tattoo with a tattoo gun, the gun presses the ink into the deepest layers of your skin (the dermis) with a needle or needles. To completely remove a tattoo, you must target the ink located in the dermis. This isn’t an easy task and mostly requires laser therapy.
Other at-home tattoo removal procedures include tattoo removal cream that contains bleaches and chemicals to remove the top layers of skin. However, tattoo removal creams don’t penetrate the skin deep enough to remove a tattoo completely. Therefore, they aren’t considered effective for permanently removing a tattoo.
If you’re considering the natural route for your tattoo removal, think again. Most of the natural tattoo removal tricks discussed on social media work to exfoliate your skin and strip away the top layers of skin and the ink therein. However, these exfoliants don’t penetrate the dermis and therefore cannot remove all the ink from your skin. As such, they aren’t effective at removing a tattoo.
To help you understand why we say these natural tattoo remedies are ineffective, we will consider how each natural tattoo removal therapy is supposed to work. We will also discover what science says about its effectiveness in removing a tattoo.
1. Use Salt To Remove A Tattoo
Salt is said to work at removing a tattoo because it contains chlorine. In addition, salt can be used as an exfoliant to remove the skin containing the ink physically. According to those who claim salt works as a natural tattoo removal agent, you should mix salt with a bit of water to create a paste. Scrub this paste over your tattoo for one hour, and eventually, the tattoo will disappear.
They don’t specify how often you should do this treatment to see results, but we can guarantee that no amount of scrubbing will suffice. Although salt can act as a mild exfoliant and will remove the top layer of dead skin cells, it cannot penetrate the skin deep enough to remove all the ink from the dermis. Therefore, this isn’t an effective tattoo removal method.
2. Aloe Vera Gel For Tattoo Removal
Aloe vera gel is known for having excellent skin healing benefits. Many people use aloe vera gel for their new tattoos to heal the skin and nourish the fresh ink. However, some claim that applying aloe vera gel over your unwanted tattoo four times a day will help the tattoo vanish.
As you can imagine, this remedy is fruitless. Aloe vera gel is often used to treat inflamed and dry skin. However, it has no lightening or dissolving properties, suggesting it can lighten tattoo ink. Mixing it with yogurt also doesn’t change the properties of aloe vera gel. Therefore, applying aloe vera gel to your unwanted tattoo will only leave you with healthy tattooed skin and nothing more.
3. Use Honey To Remove A Tattoo
To use honey as natural tattoo removal, you must mix it with salt, aloe vera gel, and lemon juice. Then, apply this cream to your tattoo and leave it on for half an hour before removing the excess cream and the tattoo along with it.
This natural tattoo removal hack is just as fruitless as the previous two. Honey has no tattoo removal properties by itself or combined with any of the other ingredients listed. Again, this mixture will not penetrate the deepest layers of the skin where the tattoo ink is located.
4. Sand Powder For Tattoo Removal
Another natural tattoo removal tip is to use sand powder or sandpaper to remove your tattoo at home. For this method, you simply take the sand powder or sandpaper and rub it over your tattoo until you see the tattoo fade.
Again, this method acts as an exfoliant. Rubbing sand over an area of skin will not only hurt but can cause redness and inflammation. However, that’s about where the results end. No evidence suggests sand powder or sandpaper is strong enough to remove any tattoo ink.
5. Try Lemon Juice To Remove A Tattoo
The final natural tattoo removal aid shared on social media is lemon juice. Apparently, the acids in lemon juice will fade the ink in your tattoo, lightening and eventually removing it. For this hack, simply soak a cotton ball in lemon juice and place it on your tattoo for an hour. Then, repeat the process until the tattoo is gone.
Although lemon juice contains some acid that will sting your eyes pretty bad, the acid isn’t strong enough to lighten your skin. Repeatedly applying lemon juice to your skin might cause it to feel sensitive and irritated. Still, it will not fade or remove the ink in your tattoo.
What Is The Most Effective Way To Remove A Tattoo?
Now that we have discussed natural tattoo removal methods and why they don’t work, you might still be wondering what the most effective tattoo removal method is. Well, you’ve likely already heard of it.
The most effective tattoo removal method is laser therapy. While expensive, laser therapy is a safe and effective way to remove any unwanted tattoos. You can also consult a tattoo artist about doing a cover-up if you don’t like your current tattoo.
Other options, such as dermabrasion and surgical tattoo removal, are available. However, these methods leave scars and carry more risks than laser tattoo removal. But no natural tattoo removal trick will give you the results you seek if you want to remove your tattoo permanently.
Conclusion
There are various natural tattoo removal tricks advertised on the internet. Lemon juice, aloe vera gel, honey, sand powder, and salt are said to have tattoo removal abilities. However, these methods all result in nothing more than exfoliated or irritated skin. None of these ingredients are strong enough to remove a permanent tattoo.
The most effective tattoo removal therapy is laser therapy. However, laser therapy is expensive and takes a lot of time. You can also consider doing a cover-up tattoo, dermabrasion therapy, or surgical tattoo removal. These methods are all more effective than any natural tattoo removal therapy will ever be.
Some of my favorite designs, tattoo books, and aftercare products, selected for you
Thank you for reading my article, I hope that you have found it helpful. If you would have trouble finding ideas for your tattoo, wonder what is meaning of design that you have found or what to buy for aftercare, to make sure that your tattoo will be healing quickly and easily, here are some of my favorite products in one place, hope that this will also help.
Design and tattoo ideas
For some ideas you can have a look at those 3 books with hundreds of designs that I use with my clients, they are available on Amazon for Kindle or in classic, paper version (links below):
- Great Book of Tattoo Designs, Revised Edition: More than 500 Body Art Designs (Fox Chapel Publishing) Fantasy, Celtic, Floral, Wildlife, and Symbol Designs for the Skin by Lora Irish
- The Big Book of Small Tattoos – Vol.1: 400 small original tattoos for women and men by Roberto Gemori
- Tiny Tattoos: Over 1,000 Small Inspirational Artworks by Rebecca Vincent.
Tattoo meaning
If you would like to read more about the meaning of different tattoo styles and designs before you will decide what you would like to have, I can recommend a book that was really useful for me when I was starting my tattoo adventure – it’s “Conscious Ink: The Hidden Meaning of Tattoos” by Lisa Barretta (through the link you can find it on Amazon for around $10).
Tattoo aftercare
The skin at the tattoo site often dries out. To prevent it and speed up healing for my clients, I usually recommend one of those tattoo aftercare balms (you can find them on Amazon):
