As all people looking for a tattoo removal product know, there are many such products on the market. The problem is wading through all the information available on each technique and figuring out which methods are B.S. and which methods actually work. I like TCA tattoo removal, but there are other products “out there”. Some work and some don't and some combine a method that works very slowly with one that really does nothing to fade tattoo ink, but when manufacturers combine the two they jack up the price and make tons of money. Today we will concentrate on those suspect “dual method” tattoo removers.

Now, you can go buy a skin fade cream marketed as a tattoo removal fade cream and rub that stuff on your tattoo until Halley's Comet comes around again and all you'll get for your trouble is soft faded skin and a bit of exercise from rubbing it in, all that stuff does is fade skin pigment, not tattoo pigment.

There are products that combine the skin pigment fading ability of a skin fade cream with a lufa pad or a battery powered exfoliator and call this the “dual method” - a tattoo removal cream with an exfoliator. Some of the creams even have bits of crushed apricot pits or some other form of grit to help along with the exfoliation, the fade cream in the ingredient list is part of the magicians trick they use, but instead of the hand being quicker than the eye, it's the eye that doesn't quite know what it's looking at.

You are instructed to use your sander or lufa pad and then apply the magic serum, or apply the magic serum and then exfoliate. The order doesn't matter unless the cream has a grit in it in which case you are instructed to exfoliate after applying the cream. A few weeks of this and the skin begins to fade, that is, the skin pigment inhibitors in the cream prevent the production of your skin pigment, which fades the skin and “tricks” the eye into seeing a fading tattoo. It's all hogwash, B.S., trickery, deception or any other similar word you care to use. Sure, the skin is faded but the tattoo is as bright and shiny as the day you began this regimen.

The secret is that just by exfoliating and maybe adding a bit of weak acid – say lemon juice, you can make the same headway in fading your tattoo as you will by spending all that extra money on the cream.

These companies spend a lot of money trying to convince you to use their product because A) It's easy; B)It's painless; C) It leaves no scars (exfoliating massages don't leave scars), and D) It's highly profitable for them.

The unfortunate news is the current state of the art methods of real tattoo removal are not easy, they are not without discomfort and in certain cases pain, some leave scars and some don't, some are highly profitable (laser) and others are just slightly profitable, otherwise no one would be marketing them.

TCA is the easy, effective and affordable alternative to laser removal. TCA can involve some discomfort, but using your common sense, how is it conceivable that removing a permanent tattoo is going to be without some discomfort. When using TCA, closely following the instructions should make the process less uncomfortable and certainly not painful. As your skin peels it can be terribly itchy. No rosy scenario, just facts.

If you want to get rid of your tattoo and can't afford laser, give TCA a try.

TCA works.