Tattooing has been an art practiced by humans for thousands of years. While 32 percent of adults in the United States have at least one tattoo, a recent study has found that many tattoo inks used to decorate people’s skin in the United States today are not a precise blend, but a mixture of substances.
Kelli Moseman, a chemistry researcher at Binghamton University in New York, and her colleagues analyzed over 50 tattoo inks from nine different brands used in the US. They had noticed that some of the inks they had used in previous studies contained substances that weren’t listed on the label.
The researchers found that 45 of the 54 inks they tested contained substances that weren’t on the label. Some ink labels listed additives that weren’t present, such as glycerol. Only one brand’s labels accurately listed the ingredients its ink contained. Fifteen inks contained propylene glycol, which is the American Contact Dermatitis Society’s 2018 allergen of the year. Other tested samples contained potentially harmful or simply strange substances, such as antibiotics.
It’s not yet clear if these substances are accidental contaminations of tattoo inks, errors in labeling, or intentional but undisclosed additions. Further investigation is required to determine this.
However, given the fact that tattoo inks remain in the skin for a long time, and that they can cause the summoning of immune cells, as well as evidence suggesting that small amounts of pigment can leak into lymph nodes, the findings are concerning and require attention.
A 2021 study of tattoo inks used in the European Union also uncovered major issues with mislabeling and unlisted additives in a similar proportion of products (around 90 percent) while also detecting metal impurities at concentrations exceeding regulated limits.
“We’re hoping the manufacturers take this as an opportunity to reevaluate their processes, and that artists and clients take this as an opportunity to push for better labeling and manufacturing,” senior author and Binghamton University chemist John Swierk says.
Tattoo inks, especially red hues, can cause allergic reactions, such as swelling, itching, and blisters, even after months or years of being injected. However, if the ingredients are not listed on the product labels, it becomes difficult to determine the cause of the reaction and prevent it from happening again.
Moseman and colleagues studied the pigments in tattoo inks and the substances used to suspend the pigments in solution or modify the ink’s viscosity or surface tension.
The team used several analytical techniques to confirm the presence of unlisted substances. Raman and XRF spectroscopy identified the pigments in each ink while NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry determined the contents of the carrier solutions.
The researchers focused only on substances present in the carrier solution at considerably high concentrations of 2,000 parts per million (ppm) or more, as detection limits for NMR spectroscopy were limited. This means that anything in lower concentrations may not have been observed.
The European Chemicals Agency introduced regulations in 2022 to restrict thousands of hazardous chemicals found in tattoo inks and considers substances at concentrations as low as 2 ppm.
“While we are only considering six inks per manufacturer, there is reasonable cause for concern that labeling issues are likely to extend to other inks not considered in this study,” the researchers write in their paper.
At the end of 2022, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) expanded its authority over cosmetics regulation to include tattoo inks. As a result, the FDA can now recall tattoo ink products if necessary, and manufacturers are required to report any adverse events related to their products. Additionally, manufacturers must update their product ingredient labeling on a yearly basis.
Although this type of regulation is relatively new, researchers have already found tattoo inks that contain ingredients that are not listed on the labels. These findings can serve as a baseline for future studies, allowing researchers to assess the impact of these regulations and improve safety.
This news is a creative derivative product from articles published in famous peer-reviewed journals and Govt reports:
References:
1. Moseman, K., Ahmed, A., Ruhren, A., & Swierk, J. R. (2024). What’s in My Ink: An Analysis of Commercial Tattoo Ink on the US Market. Analytical Chemistry.
2. Bălăceanu-Gurău, B., Apostol, E., Caraivan, M., Ion, A., Tatar, R., Mihai, M. M., … & Orzan, O. A. (2024). Cutaneous Adverse Reactions Associated with Tattoos and Permanent Makeup Pigments. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 13(2), 503.