I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers....

Hey John! Albany tattoo shop owner here. Two questions.

Are you looking at the difference between the EU certified inks and US brands that choose not to certify, or feature different product lines for the continents? Ex. Dynamic

Second, do you have thoughts or a goal on how your research can be used to improve industry or product standards?

We haven't differentiated really between EU and US inks. Most of what we've looked at are what is available in the US and the same product seems to be available overseas. In chatting with ink manufacturers, my sense is that they don't really have alternatives to many of the banned pigments (e.g., blues and greens) and will likely just pull those inks from the market.

In terms of industry, a major project we are working on right now is just understanding what's in the ink bottle versus whats on the label (if it is labeled). We are finding a pretty high number of discrepancies, some of which are probably minor (e.g., using ethyl alcohol instead of the listed isopropyl alcohol) but in other cases we are finding different pigments in the bottles or one additive swapped for another. As a starting point, a complete and accurate listing of ink ingredients seems like an important first step. -JRS

Is this project funded by a grant or is it driven by the body art industry?

Our work is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. We don't receive any material or financial support from the body art industry. -JRS

So it’s 50/50 chance my tattoos can be carcinogenic? Would applying sunscreen prevent the UV degradation?

We honestly don't know the definitive answer on carcinogenicity but certainly the pigments used in tattoo inks have real concerns associated with them. Definitely applying sun screen can't hurt since UV degradation is a real and not understood pathway. For someone who is very concerned, keeping tattoos covered in general is probably the safest bet since we also don't understand how visible light can impact degradation. -JRS

Favorite spiedie place?

Lupos. -JRS

If we want to avoid more carcinogenic prone ink, how should we ask our tatto artists? “Hey do you have X type ink? I heard ink with Y ingredients can be harmful later?”

Also do you have a tattoo? Why or why not?

Unfortunately, because we don't understand the potential carcinogenicity of the pigments it's a hard question to answer. One thing that I don't think most folks understand is that pretty much all tattoo inks use a common set of pigments. The difference between "good" and "poor" inks appears to be in the processing and additives. -JRS

Thanks everyone for participating and for the questions! Unfortunately, I have to run to a meeting but I enjoyed getting to share a little bit about our work.

-JRS

Do you have any tattoos?? :)

I don't but that has more to do with very few of my friends having tattoos when I was growing up and in my 20s. I have nothing against tattoos but they never felt like a priority for me. -JRS

I've had my tattoos for over 40 years, should I be looking for anything on my blood work, or actual skin?

We honestly don't know and that's part of the challenge. We don't actually know what we SHOULD be looking for with tattoos since we understand so little about their interactions with the body and their mechanisms of breakdown. Hopefully our work and the work of others can start to identify what we should be looking for. -JRS

What are the chances you become Binghamton University’s second Nobel prize team?

Probably slim! -JRS

what brands are you testing? is your main goal to establish safety protocols, or make tattoos last longer/look better over time?

We've spent some time talking to artists to identify what are considered good, major brands and what are considered poor brands. Until we publish the data, hopefully in the next couple months, we are a little reluctant to share specific brands until everyone, manufacturers included, can look at and review our data.

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In terms of goals, our main goal is to empower artists and consumers. We aren't anti-tattoo but we want folks to understand what the potential risks are and are not and then make a personal choice. Hopefully, that leads to better labeling and manufacturing protocols, which may enhance the safety. In terms of tattoo stability over time, understanding the basic science of tattoos and how they degrade I think is necessary first step in making longer lasting tattoos. -JRS

Are you using any extractions or separation chemistry? I would assume the spectra are quite complex upon direct analysis.

We use a variety of chromatography techniques, electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, and others to evaluate the inks. You are correct that they are quite complex so step one is often just separating the components with something like distillation to simplify the analysis. -JRS

What do you think the likelihood of getting a black ink that stays black? Or at least more black than current inks?

When we get tattoos should be getting the tradenames of the ink to see if unlisted ingredients pop up in the fortune?

Black inks are pretty interesting and it's not 100% clear to me why they "blue." My best guess (and I emphasize this is a guess) is that because the particle sizes in black inks tend to be very small that it's easier for the pigment to diffuse out away from where the ink was embedded. Very small particles scatter blue light and take on a blue-ish tint and so I speculate that might be what's happening here as you move away from the embedded black ink and have a "dilute" concentration of black pigment.

I would definitely encourage folks to get whatever data they can about the inks in their tattoos and hang onto the info. At a minimum, allergic reactions are a known issue with tattoos and can crop up long after tattooing. One big challenge we have is figuring out what the specific allergens are since we don't know 1) what ink was used and 2) what was in the inks. We hope our work can help address #2. If people keep better records of the inks that were used that would go a long way towards addressing #1. -JRS

What techniques are you using to determine metal composition? Are most pigments organic or inorganic or both?

Right now for quantitative purposes, microwave digestion and ICP-MS. For more qualitative purposes, X-ray fluorescence and/or EDAX. Most of the colored pigments are "organic" or molecular. There are some exceptions like iron oxides in browns and some reds. Black pigments are mostly carbon black and white is most TiO2 or barium sulfate, which would be considered "inorganic" or solid pigments. -JRS

A tattoo on my lower back (right side) is the only one that itches and gets raised every so often. Once, what seemed like a hardened ink grain came out of the tattoo when I was lotioning it (i thought it was a hive)... ! Am I allergic to something? I had existing tattoos with no reaction before getting this and have gotten more after this with no problem.

I'm not a medical doctor so I can't say for sure but it sounds like you are having a reaction to something in the tattoo and should maybe talk to a dermatologist. Since we don't know what causes allergic reactions in some tattoos it's entirely possible that you are allergic to some pigment in the problem tattoo and that the pigment is present in other your other tattoos. However, that's only speculation on my part. -JRS

Hey you may want to cross post this over at u/Binghamtonuniversity. What is the follow up for this study?

Short term, publish the results. Longer term, understand what the pigments fragment into and how mobile they are. Understand if heavy metal contaminants can become mobile from embedded inks. Also, trying to understand how pigments interact with skin cells in terms of toxicity and viability and how light might alter that picture. -JRS