Ask TreeHugger: Are Tattoo Inks Toxic?
by Helen Suh MacIntosh, Cambridge, MA, USA on 04.24.07
Question: I've been wanting to get myself a tattoo for a few weeks, but I've heard that tattoo inks can be toxic. Where/How can I find a tattoo artist who uses "safe" inks?
Response: The safety of tattoo inks or pigments have recently been the subject of some attention, possibly the result of a lawsuit brought by the American Environmental Safety Institute (AESI) against Huck Spaulding Enterprises, Inc., Superior Tattoo Equipment Co., and other tattoo ink sellers in the U.S. As a result of this lawsuit, the companies must place a warning for their California customers on their tattoo ink labels, catalogs and Internet sites that reads "inks contain many heavy metals, including lead, arsenic and others" and that the ingredients have been linked to cancer and birth defects. These adverse effects have been shown for exposures that occur over long time periods to these and other heavy metals, although not explicitly from these metals in tattoos. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to regulate tattoo pigments, tattoo pigments have not yet been approved by FDA for injection into the skin, as is done when a tattoo is made.
Heavy metals are used to give tattoo pigments their permanent color. The specific ingredients that are used in the pigments differ by color and by brand, but may include not only lead and arsenic, but also antimony, beryllium, chromium, cobalt, and nickel -- metals that have also been linked to bad outcomes in people. The amount of these metals in a tattoo may be substantial. For example, AESI states that the ink used for an index card sized (3” by 5”) tattoo contains 1.23 micrograms of lead, which is more than double the amount permitted per day under California’s Proposition 65.
Certain tattoo colors may present greater health risks than others. For example, green and blue pigments produced from copper salts (Copper Pthalocyanine) are thought to be safe, as they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in contact lenses, surgical implants, and infant furniture paint. Similarly, black pigments made from carbon black or india ink, white pigments made from zinc or titanium white, purple pigments made from dioxazine/carbazole, and brown pigments made from iron oxides are thought to be have minimal (if any) health risks. Of the colors, red pigments, especially those that contain cadmium, iron oxides or mercury (cinnabar), are generally the most worrisome. Mercury in tattoo pigments, for example, has caused allergic reactions and scarring in people and has sensitized people to mercury from other sources, such as fish or dental fillings.
In light of these and other concerns, it makes sense to think twice about getting a tattoo. At a minimum, you should find out the ingredients of any tattoo pigments that will make up your new tattoo. This information may be hard to find, since the ingredients of tattoo pigments are considered to be proprietary and thus are usually not listed or otherwise revealed. Some tattoo artists, however, do mix their own tattoo pigments, in which case they should be able to tell you the ingredients. I would suggest going to only those artists that can give you this information.
Previous Ask Treehugger columns can be found here.
Helen Suh MacIntosh is a professor in environmental health at Harvard University and studies how pollution behaves in the environment and how it affects people's health. Please keep in mind that her answers are just her interpretation of available information and should not be taken as the only viewpoint or solution to a problem. Use this column at your own risk. Having said this, please feel free to post any of your environmental health questions to Helen@TreeHugger.com (please use a descriptive email subject line and mention if you want to remain anonymous or not).
But tattoos are hot!!! Yeah!!!!
Helen:
Thanks for this article. As a newbie to the green lifestyle, it's amazing how many things I've done in my life that I never gave a second thought to due to lack of education - i.e. getting 4 (albeit small) tattoos.
While I love my "ink" and view it as art (when done in moderation), the toxicity of the inks were fleeting thoughts at the time. I was more concerned at the thought of the impending pain.
This article was informative and should I ever decide to pursue another piece in the future, I will definitely do my homework and look for artists who can relay the ink ingredient sources.
-Tammi
And, of course, you've got to worry about the medium that the tattoo inks are suspended in. Lots of companies use glycerin, which is made by boiling animal bones.
So many things that we assume are made from healthy, dafe, decent stuff is just chock full of creepy and scary stuff! :-)
thanks for this posting! i live as green as i possibly can and tattoo ink had never crossed my mind! as a vegetarian preparing for an eventual large tattoo on her back, i'm putting my plans on pause until i can do further research into the safest and most kind form for it to take.
This is interesting information. As someone who is very well-inked, I definitely knew that I was taking a risk since the FDA won't (annoyingly) regulate the tattoo industry. However, I (naively, it seems) never thought that the inks would be so toxic, since by the time I started getting tattooed (1998) tattooing had been around for a long time in its more modern forms. What this article does NOT do is tell people who are already inked if there is anything they can or should do about it. I'd love to know, other than getting my antioxidants and eating my veggies, if there is something I could do about it. And it also does NOT mention tattoo removal, which is also becoming more prevalent, and which releases the ink into the body more so than the encapsulated ink of a tattoo. Can we get more info, please?
I find this information questionable. I believe - having tattoos of my own - that many if not all ink companies have stopped using metals in their products for some time. This is how tattoo inks use to be made, not how they are currently made.
Also, keep in mind that your tattoo is an open wound which a product has been injected into. So whether it is synthetic, natural (and obviously harmful) metals, or the byproducts of natural safe dyes you are taking an inherit risk.
With all due respect to professor MacIntosh, I do question the accuracy of this information.
i did a llittle research on the use of "bone char" or "bone black" in india ink, the black ink used for tattoos. it was hard to get a definitive answer whether or not it was still being used. i wrote talens, an ink company, and recieved no response from them. here are some links i came across:
they say it's being used-
http://www.veganink.com/faq.html
they say carbon black is used-
http://www.tattooarchive.com/history/ink.htm
they list a couple pigments used for black including bone char, but don't elaborate-
http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Tattoo_ink
they make bone black, for who, don't know-
http://www.ebonex.com/abou.htm
a definition of bone char-
http://www.chemistrydaily.com/chemistry/Bone_char
came across this pigment information page, really cool-
http://www.jcsparks.com/painted/pigment-chem.html
looks like the sugar industry uses bone black to process sugar, so it's being used today.
bone char is burnt up animal bones. i was looking for vegan ink.
Regarding inkedbuddha 's comments on what can he do now that he is covered in ink! First of all if you were so inclined you could search the net for heavy metal testing kits and see if you have an over abundance (which you may) and secondly you can do flushes and fasts, and cleanses that will rid your body of toxic heavy metals. So good luck with that! I haven't succcumbed as yet, but was thinking about a celtic pattern on the small of my back in black, but I am also a vegetarian and do not relish the idea of charred animal bones being injected into my skin! i may just have to remain uncool! chaio.
Helen:Thank you for this article. I am hoping it will wake up my daughter.
Do any have mercury antibacterial?
this artical is a ood one andi am glal that i am one of the few people who read it so i am honored to say that 2day after school i an going 2 get a tatoo like this one