Is It Safe to Remove a Small Tattoo at Home with Salt? (photo)

No, it is not safe to use salt to remove tattoo ink. There are absolutely no pros involved in this approach. Tattoo pigmentation resides in deeper skin layers where salt cannot reach. This is why lasers are used since energy can affect deeper skin layers and break up the tattoo ink particles so that your immune system can carry them away. You may be interested in a patient from my office at the Dr.U Skin Clinic in Los Angeles who also had a black tattoo along her bikini line. We used the Spectra laser to get rid of it completely.

Removal of tattoos with salt is a dangerous practice. Let's compare salt removal versus laser tattoo techniques.
Tattoo removal via Salt 
The way it works is that the salt will abrade (aka damage) your skin until the ink is found
Your skin will then release the tattoo particles
If you are deeper than the reticular dermis- you will have a permanent scar
It is extraordinarily painful, imprecise and questionable on how effective it actually is
The cost to fix scarring is higher than tattoo removal itself and likely permanent from salt
Tattoo removal via LASER
Specifically targets color of tattoo ink and breaks it up into smaller particles.
Proven by countless studies to be the treatment of choice and effective 
Your skin will eliminate the smaller particles with 1 of 3 ways (evaporation, removal via lymphatics, and macrophage elimination)

When removing a tattoo the best method is to have a licensed professional use laser tattoo equipment. Although salt is abrasive, it will only irritate the epidermis layer of your skin. It can cause severe desiccation. It will not remove a tattoo which stays in a liquid form in the dermis layer. Salt mixed with ice it will cause a burn similar to frost bite which will again not remove the tattoo but cause damage to the epidermis. The safest and most effective way to remove an unwanted tattoo is laser tattoo removal.

Please don't try this.  You can potentially cause a lot of damage and scarring by "sanding" away a tattoo with salt.  A safer and more effective way would be to see a professional who can use a laser to remove it.  In our practice, we use the Picosure laser, which is the most advanced technology for removing tattoos.

Thanks for your question.  We do not recommend trying salt and water to remove tattoos in any situation.  The ink is way too deep in the skin to be reached with salt and water, and you'll only end up abrading and injuring your skin, and you could create a lot of scarring.  Please see a board certified dermatologist with the proper tattoo removal laser (usually a Q-switched 1064/532nm laser).  Best of luck!

Hello, I have seen other try this at home with little success and a lot of scarring. The PicoWay laser is the safest and most effective for taking ink out and making the area look the best when it gets done. Your tattoo should be evaluated (during a complimentary consultation) by a medical professional to find out how many treatments and how much it will cost. There are numbing options available to be sure you are comfortable during the treatment.

Greeting,Tattoo removal is something that should be done under the watchful eyes of a professional. It is best to have this procedure performed at a cosmetic surgery clinic.

Best of luck

Dr Milan Doshi

Mumbai, India

This method is not only harmful, but ineffective. We do not recommend salt and water for tattoo removal. For optimal results, I recommend visiting a board certified dermatologist or cosmetic surgeon for a laser tattoo removal service. Number of treatments vary, depending on size of the tattoo. A Laser treatment, such as PicoWay, is a safe and effective method to tattoo removal.

Strongly do not recommend salt removal.  This will irritate and abrade skin without really removing tattoo well at all.  Recommend laser removal over several sessions to get rid of it appropriately and with the least scarring.  Would recommend Picoway laser which is the best at tattoo removal

This would not work because the tattoo ink is placed in the dermis of the skin.  The salt water would only irritate the upper layers.  A laser light however would bypass the upper layers of the skin to target the tattoo pigment in the deeper layers and fragment them to facilitate removal.