parallel Naked torso and thighs, The sun illuminates the water of the sea and soaks corals and fish in the water. On the lower leg, the bright frog is tense as it prepares to jump off the tear-wet leaves.Spoiled brat Glittering blue eyes Look from the medial biceps.
In his studio in the village of Grado in northern Italy, Alex de Pase reviewed the photos of thousands of designs he inked during his career as a tattoo artist. However, these skinscapes may not be duplicated in 2023 — at least in the same set of colors.
New regulations on tattoo inks and permanent makeup, which began to come into force throughout the European Union in January this year, aimed to reduce the risk of containing ingredients that could be harmful to health. Regulations have also shaken industry memory by reorganizing ink manufacturers to comply with their entire product line.
Further potential for confusion rests on the artist’s head next year when the ban on green and blue pigments, which ink makers say may be impossible to replace, comes into effect. This caused turmoil among sculptors who claimed to be widespread, sew unnecessary concerns among clients and undermine their art.
European regulations can herald change in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration monitors inks and pigments to some extent..Last November, when Dr. Linda Katz, director of the agency’s Cosmetics and Colors Department, gave a presentation at a tattoo safety conference in Berlin when asked if national regulations would meet European regulations. teeth Responded: “I don’t know yet. We are working on the field itself.”
Known for inking tattoos in his studio, especially portrait photorealism, De Pase says he carefully mixes different shades to achieve the delicacy of skin tones. “I’m well known for my color tattoos,” he said. “For me, this is a problem.”
Tattoo trends and toxicology
Once a rebellious sign of sailors and bikers, tattoos left a mark long ago in the form of fringe art.According to a survey, about a quarter of Europeans aged 18-35, almost one third American adult sports tattoo. Given the meat of all its inks, documented complications are relatively rare and are usually associated with bacterial infections or allergic reactions. However, regulators have not kept up with the popularity of body art. Very few European countries monitor tattoo inks nationwide. Until this year, there were no binding standards for the entire European Union.
Modern tattoo inks are a complex formulation. They include insoluble pigments that provide shade and color, binders that keep the pigment in a liquid when transferred to the skin or water, other solvents such as glycerin and alcohol that affect the quality of the ink, and preservatives. And other additives are included.
When injected, some pigment remains permanently on the skin, but it can also move to the lymph nodes. When exposed to sunlight or during laser ablation, the dye can also be cleaved into new, potentially more toxic compounds that circulate throughout the body.
For many years, traditional ink makers have expanded their color palette by incorporating heavy metals such as barium and copper into their pigments, recording neurotoxic substances such as cadmium, lead and arsenic in high concentrations of ink. These elements may also be found in so-called vegan inks, which simply exclude animal-derived glycerin and other ingredients.
Since 2015, Europe has required manufacturers to label their inks with dangerous ingredients. However, raw pigments are manufactured on an industrial scale for use in all types of products, including clothing and automobiles, and therefore may not have the purity expected of substances injected into the skin.
Ines Schreiver, Co-Director of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Germany Focused on tattoo toxicologySaid that the basic question about body exposure to ink remains unanswered. Some of the unknowns are related to the amount of ink that enters the body, its exposure and occasional side effects, and the illness that may appear years later.
“I don’t use the words” safe “or” unsafe “to describe tattoos,” she said. “I tell my friends to let them know about possible side effects and uncertainties.”
After a long deliberation by the European Chemicals Agency European Commission has chosen to focus on substances It bans a long list of chemicals that are known to be dangerous and are already banned from use in cosmetics, and significantly limits the concentration of certain corrosive or irritating compounds.
The ban included two pigments, blue 15: 3 and green 7, based in part on a decade-old study that linked use with hair dyes to an increased risk of bladder cancer. .. There is no substitute for these pigments, but the Commission has postponed the ban until next year, acknowledging the ink makers’ opposition that there is no evidence to confirm their safety.
“The substance is injected into the human body for lasting and long-term contact — lifelong.” Said Anna Maria Brass Rico, Head of Policy for the Commission. “That’s why it’s so protective.”
Dr. Jørgen Serup, a Danish dermatologist who has run the famous “Tattoo Clinic” at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen since 2008, said the regulation was delayed. However, in his opinion, these are poorly targeted and banned many substances that are not used in tattoos because they cannot address known issues such as bacterial contamination of ink during production. rice field. Among the thousands of patients he treated for complications, he found that red was more commonly associated with allergic reactions. “From a clinical point of view, there is really no reason to ban blue and green,” he said.
Regulators are in a difficult position, according to Les Liam Kiros Alcala, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an expert on chemical exposure and its potential health effects. There are more than 40,000 chemicals known to be used commercially, and little is known about the dangers they pose. In addition, these risks can vary from person to person based on many factors, including exposure levels to substances, genetic predisposition, and existing illnesses. “So far scientists couldn’t tell you that this is the chemical you have to worry about most,” she said.
However, banning substances and leaving the industry to find alternatives is not always the solution. “It’s not uncommon to replace chemicals that are known to increase the risk of adverse health effects with unfortunate alternatives,” says Quirós-Alcalá.
The United States takes a more pragmatic approach than Europe. The FDA has regulatory authorities that approve pigments as safe, but tattoo ink makers do not require that designation, nor do US ink makers need to disclose their ingredients.
Due to less oversight of the broader category of cosmetics, distributors are generally limited to tracking inferior or mislabeled products and issuing safety warnings. Consumer advocates have called on Congress to update the Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act 83 years ago to give authorities greater scrutiny, but with little help. In response to the question, authorities provided a written statement stating that they were aware of European regulations but did not assess the risk of restricted pigments.
Adaptation or counterattack
The sculptors protested the regulation, suddenly worried that their form of art might be at stake. In October 2020, some people saidPreserve pigmentsHas spread to the global community of tattoo artists and their extensive social media followers. To date, the petition has more than 178,000 signatories.
Among the people who shared the petition was Mario Barth, CEO of Intenze Tattoo Ink, a Las Vegas-based ink maker. He said the industry could have circumvented the regulation by developing its own standards, blaming the lack of cooperation that ink makers still tend to consider as counterculture loneliness. “So those who didn’t have a clue about it just said,” OK, let’s ban it all. ” “
In the United States, where many tattoo inks used in Europe are produced, manufacturers have been in a hurry to reorganize their products to meet new standards. One of the leading suppliers, World Famous Tattoo Ink, has a new facility in Greenville, South Carolina. The facility is filled and packed with 400,000 bottles each month.
Owner Lou Rubino opened his first tattoo store in St. Marks Place, New York in 1998, shortly after the city council. Lifted A long-standing ban on tattoos so that underground artists can work openly again. At that time, the company was manufacturing ink in a warehouse on Long Island. “In the past, there were people who sat there and bottled commercial iced tea containers with a spout on the bottom,” he recalled.
World Famous had previously updated its products, removing formaldehyde-based preservatives that were banned in Switzerland, for example. However, Rubino said the new regulations require extensive changes, forcing the company to pay an additional fee to the laboratory to assess whether the product meets the chemical tolerance limits. rice field. Since World Famous did not test the product on animals, employees and their families and friends volunteered for skin to measure the performance of the new ink.
World-famous ones were looking for alternatives to banned pigments, but Rubino said they hadn’t yet found a suitable alternative. “If that doesn’t work, there will be much less blue and green tattoos,” he said.
He estimated that creating new ink to comply with the regulations would cost the company millions of dollars — and he couldn’t say if the results would be safer. “I’m still not sure if these are good or bad because I’m adding something that has never been used in tattoos before.”
Nordic Tattoo Supplies, which distributes ink throughout Europe, said World Famous’s color products are the first set to comply with new regulations launched in early January and are more than double the price of previous inks. I did. Nevertheless, demand far exceeded supply, and it was necessary to distribute the quantity sold to each customer. Nordic spokesman Jenni Lehtovaara said the situation was improving as other manufacturers introduced new compliant inks to the market, but options were limited. “I don’t have the same palette as before. It’s not nearby.”
DePase, who also owns a chain of nine tattoo parlors, said staff had thrown away old color inks at the end of 2021 and worked only in black and gray for the first three weeks of the year. Currently, his studio spends about € 5,000 and about $ 5,200 a month to stock new colors of ink. De Pase was happy with their performance, but he said it would take years to see how they endured the customer’s skin.
“Safety must be our top priority,” he said, but it needs to be balanced with some tolerance for risk. He observed that a tobacco shop facing one of his studios sells cigarettes and cigars all day long. “There is a thin line.”
