My story isn t over tattoo skin#

Some companies claim to use safer ingredients in their ink. In 2005, a California judge ruled that two major tattoo ink makers – Huck Spaulding Enterprises and Superior Tattoo Equipment – must include a label on their products warning California customers the ink contains heavy metals that could cause “cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm”. Meanwhile, ink manufacturers already have to contend with rules from some state or local governments. His team is also looking at the possibility that the body digests and secretes ink in the same way that it destroys bacteria when fighting infection. “Where does the pigment go?” Howard said the pigment may still be there, and that it could be toxic. “We want to know what happens to the ink,” said Paul Howard, the lead research chemist. Researchers are examining some pigments, like Yellow 74, which fade in the sunlight. It’s currently investigating how tattoo ink is broken down in the body and its long term safety at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Arkansas. This kind of public health scare and the popularity of tattoos and emergence of health problems are forcing the FDA to consider more oversight over this $2.3bn industry.

“These infections may be severe and may require extensive treatment with antibiotics, hospitalization or surgery,” warned the FDA.

My story isn t over tattoo skin#

The FDA warned tattoo artists that using the contaminated inks could lead to skin irritation such as redness and swelling, and could spread throughout the body, resulting in swollen lymph nodes and even sepsis, a life threatening blood infection. The FDA tested the ink following an outbreak of skin infections in people who had recently got tattoos in Florida. This happened last year, when Miami-based company, A Thousand Inks voluntarily recalled some of its products after the FDA found bacterial contamination in unopened bottles of the firm’s grey wash shades. The agency will investigate an ink only when a safety issue is reported. The agency can regulate the pigments used by screening them beforehand, but it seldom does so “because of other competing public health priorities and a pervasive lack of evidence of safety problems specifically associated with these pigments,” said Lauren Sucher, an FDA spokesperson. The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t need to approve tattoo inks before they go on the market. “The body treats the ink as a foreign substance.” “The skin is very active in protecting the body from infection, and white blood cells try to eat up tattoo ink,” said Hollmig. Tattoos work by injecting the ink into the second layer of skin known as the dermis, where the ink remains permanently unless it is removed using laser technology.