I’m the friendly residential nurse here, so I’ll shoot my shot. 🙂 I looked at your profile, Heather, but couldn’t find an age. The first step we need to take is healing the existing acne. This means wearing clean natural fiber shirts in every day life and to bed at night that are loose-fitting. No picking! (That was the hardest one for me.) Shower after sweating, and once a day beyond that, with a mild soap for your back. Regular liquid Dial is fine; no perfumes or junky stuff.

As far as soothing the initial redness, hydrocortisone cream applied on the spots. You can get a tube at Wal-Mart for a dollar or eighty-eight cents. You can also get a tube of scar gel for about the same price. Those go on once a day after the shower. You’ll see improvement in a month.

Probably the best thing you can do is talk to your dermatologist and gynecologist openly about the acne and tattoo because a lot of this is probably hormonal and they’ll best know how to control the skin issues while minimizing damage, but been there on not being able to afford the doctor. At least try the free clinic. They can help you out.

Oddly enough, cepalin, the active ingredient in scar removal gel, is extract from the common onion. Sorbic acid is in there, but it’s unlikely to bother it. While I would try to gently wipe any off my tattoo, it’s unlikely to cause significant fading.

Cepalin works pretty slow, and it works at a cellular level to kind of “normalize” things, softening, lightening, and freshening scars up. If they’re severe scars, I recommend going to a good aesthetician and getting a series of chemical peels. I did this to my face and it made a world of difference, and they’ll be careful around your tattoos and sensitive bits.