Chemists Uncover Secrets Of Tattoo Inks

Science Chemists Uncover Secrets Of Tattoo Inks Eva Amsen Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Writing about the overlap of science and art New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Aug 24, 2022, 06:45am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Considering that about one in three Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have tattoos, you’d think we would know a lot about the ink used for tattooing, but the material is surprisingly unregulated and understudied.

That’s why chemists are now analyzing popular tattoo inks, and what they’ve discovered so far isn’t always great. What’s in tattoo ink? In a new research study presented at a meeting of the American Chemical . .

. [+] Society, chemists reveal that some inks may cause potential health concerns. Getty John Swierk, Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Binghamton University (State University of New York), is leading a research project that chemically analyses different tattoo inks to learn more about the components of the dyes.

At a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Chicago today, Swierk presented some of the data that his team’s tattoo ink study has uncovered so far. “Every time we looked at one of the inks, we found something that gave me pause,” he told ACS . For example, in almost half of the inks they investigated so far, the chemists detected a type of pigment known as azo dyes.

Although these molecules are themselves safe, they can potentially be converted into cancer-causing compounds by bacteria in the skin or as a result of UV light from sun exposure. Even though most of the inks are safe, it’s worrying that they picked up any concerning ingredients at all. How do potentially dangerous materials end up in inks that are intended for use on the human body? According to Swierk, part of the problem is that there is no specialist production route for tattoo inks.

“Big companies manufacture pigments for everything, such as paint and textiles,” he says . “These same pigments are used in tattoo inks. ” There are surprisingly few FDA guidelines for the materials used in tattoo ink.

Even though tattoo inks are injected under the skin, they are classified as cosmetics, and according to the What’s In My Ink? website they tend to get studied in detail when a safety concern is brought up, but not as a standard procedure. MORE FOR YOU New Research Finds A Connection Between Domestic Violence And These Two Personality Disorders This Scientist Helps Andean Forests And Ecuador’s Women In STEM Exceptional Fossil Preservation Suggests That Discovering Dinosaur DNA May Not Be Impossible Besides finding chemicals with concerning properties, Swierk’s group also noticed a problem with the size of the particles in the inks. Some of them were smaller than 100nm, which is ten thousand times smaller than a millimeter.

Swierk was concerned by those findings. “Particles of this size can get through the cell membrane and potentially cause harm. ” The research group is still in the process of collecting data on different inks, but they have already released some of the information on their site What’s In My Ink? .

Over time, the site will include more information about the methods they used and interpretations of their findings. “With these data, we want consumers and artists to make informed decisions and understand how accurate the provided information is,” says Swierk. Perhaps this research will also be able to serve as evidence for anyone campaigning for more regulation of tattoo inks, so that future studies like this will bring up fewer surprises.

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