A Green Tattoo Ink in Asia and in Europe: a comparative analysis

Tattoo practice is on the rise worldwide, including eastern countries [1]. In terms of regulations, only a few countries in Europe have issued a legislation on tattoo and permanent make-up inks composition, whereas Asian regulations, to the extent where we had access, are more focused on the practice of tattoos, rather than on ink composition [2]. In this framework, it appears that the same producers (such as Eternal Ink) has bottles of the same ink with different labels, for European and Asian markets, and more specifically with the indication For Asia Market only on the one destined to the Asiatic market. This triggered our comparative study of a green tattoo ink, the Green Concentrate by the Eternal Ink, to determine potential differences (Figure 1). The investigation has been carried out in order to explore all components of a tattoo ink, i.e. the pigment(s) and the vehicle, including additives and possible metal pollutants. It turns out that the major pigment is, in both cases, the PG7, i.e. the hexadecachloro copper phthalocyanine, C.I. 74260, restricted in Europe [3], though it is reported to be PG36, i.e. the hexabromodecachloro copper phthalocyane C.I. 74265 on the EU bottle. Toxic cyclic siloxanes are also present [4] as well as hydrocarbons. In both cases carcinogenic components have been detected and metals above the allowed threshold. Some differences are detected in the type of hydrocarbons present, sometimes characterized by different toxicity. Furthermore, an additional yellow ink is suspected to be mostly present in the Asian ink.