The purity of tattoo inks, screening substances of high concern

Background: Tattoos have grown in popularity in recent years with over 60 million Europeans having a tattoo nowadays. Currently, there is no harmonized legislation in Europe but from 2022 on, tattoo inks will be regulated through a REACH Amendment implementing compound-specific restrictions.& nbsp;Methodology: A screening method based on LC-QqQ-MS was developed and validated for screening 40 substances of high concern in tattoo inks. An additional quantification method was validated to quantify 5-nitro toluidine and 4-chloroaniline in tattoo inks with high accuracy. The method was validated according to the total error approach with an acceptance value of +/- 20%& nbsp;Results: The methodology was applied to 86 samples of which 26 are violating the current Resolution ResAP (2008). 5-nitro toluidine was found in 16 samples, all of them having an unacceptable health risk, with an average concentration of 29 mu g/g basic violet 10, basic red 1, 4-chloroaniline, and basic red 9 were detected 8, 7, 4, and 3, times respectively. Counterfeit products with lower quality were observed.& nbsp;Conclusion: Our results show that low-quality tattoo inks are easily available to the European consumer. In line with literature, most infringements were observed with red/brown inks which is not surprising since these colors are most often associated with adverse health effects.

Automated summary

Tattoos have become increasingly popular in Europe, but there is currently no harmonized legislation. The study found that low-quality tattoo inks are easily available in the European market, with most issues observed with red/brown inks.