Today, before getting inked, one must have a serious think so as to avoid tattoo remorse. In the future, though, you may not have to worry about laser removal, or surgery, or a touch-up tattoo for those inky regrets anymore, though. Alec Falkenham, a Ph.D. candidate at Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University, has developed a painless tattoo removal cream that causes tats to gradually fade away.
在纹身之前，我们得想清楚了再动手以免后悔。不过在将来，你也许不用担心得用激光去除，手术或者触摸式纹身。新斯科舍省达尔豪西大学的在读博士Alec Falkenham开发出一种无痛纹身去除乳液能让纹身逐渐消退。
The application of the cream, which he hopes will eventually become commercially available, involves none of the inflammation, redness, blistering or scarring side effects that traditional tattoo removal procedures can have, either. He believes the procedure might even be anti-inflammatory. All you have to do is apply the topical cream to your skin.
他认为，这种乳液最终能走向商业化。这种乳液没有传统纹身去除手术可能引起的炎症，红肿，起泡或疤痕副作用。他认为整个过程甚至还有消炎的作用。而你要做的只是把乳液涂在皮肤上。
Falkenham came up with the idea three years ago, when he was about to get his first tattoo and was simultaneously working on his Ph.D. proposal; talk about injecting yourself into your work. Interested in learning more about tattoos, he began to read up and noticed that the very cells he and his colleagues had been researching to help heal the heart following heart disease—macrophages—were the same cells that hold onto tattoo ink. He brought the idea to his supervisor, who helped him develop the idea into what would become his research.
Falkenham三年前冒出了这个想法。那个时候他打算做自己的第一个纹身，同时又在准备博士申请，整个人都忙于工作。出于对纹身的浓厚兴趣，他开始钻研，之后发现：他和同事一直在研究的一种帮助心脏病后心脏恢复的细胞 —巨噬细胞 — 正是留住纹身墨水的细胞。他和他的上级说了这个想法。这位上级也帮他把这个想法转化为研究方向。
Currently, Falkenham is working to patent the cream so that people can purchase it over the counter, without a prescript ion. Although thankfully, it doesn’t look like he’ll be using any on himself; he says he doesn’t regret any of his multiple tattoos, which include a phoenix and a world map.
目前，Falkenham正在为这种乳液申请专利，让人们能够在非处方的情况下就能买到。尽管他很欣喜，但是他好像不会把这种乳液用在自己身上。他纹了一直凤凰和一幅世界地图，并表示对自己的纹身不会后悔。
