Tatbgone vs. Laser
Two female college students recently took part in a tattoo removal test pitting Tatbgone against Laser tattoo removal. The two young women had come to regret what they had at one time regarded as glamorous art. One of the young women had a butterfly placed on her ankle and the other had the name of her ex-husband placed in a very personal location on her back side.
The test was conducted in Philadelphia with the help of Dr. Andrew Pollack of the Philadelphia Institute of Dermatology. The testing was covered and reported on by television station WPVI in Philadelphia. They wanted to record the comparative success between a highly publicized tattoo removal cream on the internet and Laser removal. Both women were in a hurry to remove their tattoos, but were willing to try a cream removal system first because of the convenience and low cost when compared to laser removal.
With the help of Dr. Pollack, both women agreed to help Action News test TatBgone against the laser.
Dr. Pollack conducted the test by lasering half of each tattoo while the ladies applied Tat B Gone to the other half.
The ladies followed the three step process described in the TatBgone instructions and Dr. Pollack followed standard laser protocol for the removal of each color in the respective tattoos, adding that even laser is not 100% successful.
"Color has a lot to do with how responsive the tattoo is to the laser," said Dr. Pollack.
He adds that black, red, and green ink colors are much easier to remove with the laser than some newer colors like pink, pastels, and blues like teal. And some other factors to consider when trying too determine how long it will take the tattoo to disappear include the age of the tattoo and where it is located on your body.
"The lower extremities tend to heal a little bit more slowly," he said.
Action News checked back with one of the ladies four days into the test and she was complaining of a rash around the half of the tattoo being treated with Tatbgone. On the advice of Dr. Pollack she discontinued use of TatBGone, but contunued with the laser treatements.
After a month the lady with the tattooed backside, whose tattoo was just a basic black, noticed visible results on the laser side and absolutely no change on the Tatbgone side. She also noted the 3 step Tatbgone process was very time consuming.
On the other hand, the colorful butterfly tattoo showed no noticeable difference after the first month of treatment from either method.
One month later the WPVI cameras revealed a big difference on the butterfly side treated with laser, but no change on the Tatbgone side. In fact, Dr. Pollack said the young lady will no longer need another laser treatment on the half he worked on.
The woman was unimpressed with the progress of Tat B Gone.
"I didn't see any difference with the Tat B Gone. The time that's involved and I haven't seen any visible results," she said.
Laser tattoo removal generally costs about 10 times the cost of having the tattoo applied and can take several treatements to show results.
Action News tried repeatedly to reach the company that manufacturers Tat B Gone, but all attempts to get a hold of them went unanswered.
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