Modern tattoos cause high concentrations of hazardous pigments in skin.

BACKGROUND

Modern tattoo colourants frequently consist of azo pigments that not only contain multiple impurities but also are originally produced for car paint and the dyeing of consumer goods.

OBJECTIVE

In order to be able to assess the health risk of tattoos, it is important to determine the pigment concentration in human skin.

METHODS

We tattooed excised pigskin and human skin with a common tattoo pigment (Pigment Red 22) under various conditions. After tattooing, we quantitatively extracted the pigment in order to determine the pigment concentration in skin.

RESULTS

The concentration of pigments ranged from about 0.60 to 9.42 mg/cm(2) of tattooed skin (mean value 2.53 mg/cm(2)) depending upon the size of the pigment crystals, the pigment concentration applied to the skin surface, and the respective procedure of tattooing.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, high concentrations of colourants are injected into the skin during tattooing and based upon this quantification, a risk assessment of tattooing ought to be carried out.