![]() That’s why Swierk and his team have created a fledgling website, What’s in my ink? His research will ultimately constitute the first comprehensive survey of tattoo inks in the US market, according to Swierk. “As with everything related to tattoos, it is up to consumers to make a decision about their particular comfort level and then act accordingly.” “Those pigments in particular have been used for tattooing for a long time,” Swierk said. However, he added that while the scientific data from the EU is worrying, it is not yet the definitive conclusion as to the overall safety of the pigments. “Most tattoo manufacturers are discontinuing the sale of blue and green inks in Europe not necessarily changing pigments, because there’s no obvious replacement right now.” commercial “Anyone getting a tattoo in the US with blue or green tattoo inks should assume those pigments of concern will be included,” Swierk said. The European Commission recently began cracking down on harmful chemicals in tattoo ink, including two widely used blue and green pigments (Pigment Blue 15 and Pigment Green 7), claiming they are often of low purity and may contain hazardous substances. About half of the 18 inks analyzed by electron microscopy had particles in this worrying size range.Įnlarge / Bottles of colored ink stacked in a box at a tattoo parlor in Berlin. ![]() When you get down to that size regime, you start to worry about nanoparticles getting in.” into cells, get into the nucleus and do damage, possibly causing cancer. In addition, Swierk says, “Particle sizes used in tattoo inks are often very small, less than 100 nanometers in diameter. These pigments are usually inert, but exposure to bacteria or ultraviolet light can cause them to break down into a nitrogen-based compound that could cause cancer. And 23 of the inks tested so far show evidence of an azo-containing dye. They found that many ingredients did not appear on manufacturers’ labels, such as an ink that contained ethanol even though it was not listed on the label. This allowed them to identify specific pigments and other ingredients in the various inks. Next, Swierk’s lab used various methods to analyze a wide range of commonly used tattoo inks, including Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. #TINY WITCH TATTOOS CRACKED#commercialĮnlarge / The European Union has recently cracked down on blue and green pigments used in tattoo inks.įirst, the team interviewed several tattoo artists and found that while the artists had their preferred brands, they knew very little about the chemical composition of their favorite inks. There may also be other additives to adjust the viscosity and keep the pigment particles suspended in the carrier package. #TINY WITCH TATTOOS SKIN#As for shipping packages, most ink manufacturers use grain or isopropyl alcohol, sometimes with a bit of witch hazel added to the mix to help the skin heal after the tattooing process. They can be small fragments of solids or discrete molecules, such as titanium dioxide or iron oxide (for white or rust-brown colors, respectively). The pigments are the same as those used in paints and textiles. Typical tattoo ink contains one or more pigments (which give the ink its color) within a “carrier pack” to help the pigments enter the skin. One of the reasons for this significant gap in scientific knowledge is that in the US, at least, tattoo ink manufacturers are not required to disclose ingredients, and even when they do, there is no real oversight of if those disclosures are correct, by swierk That meant learning more about the chemical makeup of tattoo inks, which is also not well understood. “My group studies how light can drive chemical reactions, so it was a perfect fit.” “We realized that we didn’t understand much about the interaction between light and tattoos,” Swierk said during a news conference at the ACS meeting. ![]() This changed to an interest in laser tattoo removal, specifically how laser light causes tattoos to fade. They presented their findings this week american chemical society meeting (ACS) in Chicago.Īccording to lead researcher John Swierk, a chemist at Binghamton, the project initially began when his group became interested in tattoos as tools for medical diagnosis. Scientists at Binghamton University (State University of New York) have analyzed nearly 100 different tattoo Inks and found that manufacturers’ ingredient labels (when used) are often inaccurate and that many inks contain tiny nanoscale particles that could be harmful to human cells. Kymberlie Dozois Photography/Getty Images Enlarge / Scientists have found that ingredient labels on tattoo inks are often inaccurate and that some inks contain nanoscale particles that could damage human cells. ![]()
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