Tattoos are a true art form, featuring everything from life-like faces to elaborate nature scenes. People have decorated their bodies for millennia for ceremonial and religious reasons. However, many people today adorn themselves with these images as a form of self-expression. But the inks used for
tattoos are unregulated in the United States, resulting in products whose components are largely a mystery. Now, scientists have analyzed almost 100 inks and report that even when these products include an ingredient label, the lists are often inaccurate. The research team also detected small particles that could be harmful to cells.
Swierk and undergraduates in his laboratory interviewed tattoo artists to see what they knew about the inks they use on their clients. Although the artists could quickly identify a brand they preferred, they didn’t know much about its contents. “Surprisingly, no dye shop makes pigment specific for tattoo ink,” Swierk explains. “Big companies manufacture pigments for everything, such as paint and textiles. These same pigments are used in tattoo inks.
Tattoo artists must be licensed in the locales where they operate for safety reasons, yet no federal or local agency regulates the contents of the inks themselves. has been investigating the particle size and molecular composition of tattoo pigments using a variety of techniques. These include Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. From these analyses, they have confirmed the presence of ingredients that aren’t listed on some labels.
In addition, the team has analyzed 16 inks using electron microscopy, and about half contained particles smaller than 100 nm. “That’s a concerning size range,” says Swierk. “Particles of this size can get through the cell membrane and potentially cause harm.”
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