The sun shines through the ocean and bathes coral and fish in light. The vivid frog was tense as he prepared to jump. A child with blue eyes is looking at something.
In his home studio in Grado, Alex De Pase looked at photographs of some of the thousands of designs he had tattooed over the course of his career as a tattoo artist. The same set of colors might not be enough to replicate these skinscapes in the future.
New regulations on tattoo ink and permanent makeup that took effect across the European Union this January were supposed to reduce the risk of including ingredients that could be harmful. The biggest shakeup of the industry in memory has been caused by the regulations.
Next year, when bans on green and blue pigments go into effect, the possibility of even more disruption hangs over artists. This has caused an uproar among tattooists who argue the restrictions are too broad and undermine their art.
Changes in the United States could be affected by Europe's regulations. The director of the agency's Office of Cosmetics and Colors was asked at a conference in Berlin if the country would align its regulations with Europe's.
Mr. De pase, who is known for the photorealism of his tattoos, says he carefully mixes different shades to achieve the nuances of skin tone. He said that he is well known because of his tattoos. This is a problem for me.
Long ago tattoos were no longer considered a fringe art form. A quarter of Europeans and one-third of Americans have tattoos. Infections and allergic reactions are the most common causes of documented complications. Only a few European countries have the power to regulate tattoo ink. There were no binding standards in Europe until this year.
Modern tattoo ink blends are complex. They include insoluble pigments that provide shade or color, binding agents to keep the pigments suspended in liquid as they are transferred to the skin and water, and other substances that affect the ink's qualities.
It is possible for the skin to remain permanently in the body, but it can also migrate to the body's outlying areas. New, potentially more toxic compounds can be cleaved into when exposed to sunlight or laser removal.
Over the years, traditional ink manufacturers have incorporated heavy metals such as barium and copper into their pigments to create a widening range of colors and have been documented in some inks in high concentrations. These elements can be found in vegan ink which excludes animal-derived ingredients.
Europe requires manufacturers to label ink that contains hazardous ingredients. Because raw pigments are manufactured at industrial scale for use in all manner of products, they are not always of a purity one would hope for in a substance injected into one's skin.
Ines Schreiver is a co-director of a center of dermatotoxicology at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Germany. How much ink enters the body, the relationship between that exposure and adverse reactions, and any illness that may emerge years later are among the unknowns.
She wouldn't use the word'safe' or 'unsafe' to describe tattooing. My friends are told about possible side effects and uncertainties.
After lengthy deliberations by the European Chemicals Agency, the European Commission decided to focus on substances known to be hazardous, banning a long list of chemicals already banned for use in cosmetics.
Blue 15:3 and Green 7 were included in the ban because of research linking their use in hair dyes to bladder cancer. The commission delayed its prohibition until next year after acknowledging that there was no substitute for those colors.
The substances are injected into the human body for a long time. That is why it is so protected.
Regulations were needed, according to Dr. Jrgen Serup, a doctor who runs a tattoo clinic at a hospital. In his opinion, these were poorly targeted, proscribing many substances that would never be used in tattoos, while failing to address known problems likebacterialContamination of ink during production. He found that red was more often associated with allergic reactions. He said there was no reason to ban blue and green.
Lesliam Quirs-Alcal, an assistant professor at the school, said that regulators are in a difficult position. There are tens of thousands of chemicals known to be in commercial use, but little is known about their dangers. A person's level of exposure to the substance, genetic predisposition and pre-existing disease are some of the factors that can affect the hazard. She said that no scientist could tell you that this is the most important chemical.
Banning substances and leaving industry to find replacements isn't a solution Ms.Quirs-Alcal said that replacing chemicals could increase the risk of adverse health effects.
The US has taken a more hands-off approach. The F.D.A. has the authority to approve pigments, but no tattoo ink manufacturer has asked for that designation.
The agency is limited in its oversight of the broader category of cosmetics. The 83-year-old Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act needs to be updated to give the agency more oversight. The agency stated in a written statement that it was aware of the European regulations but had not assessed the risk.
The tattooists protested because they were suddenly concerned that their art form might be in danger. The petition to save the Pigments spread through the global community of tattoo artists and their extensive social media followings. More than 178,000 people have signed the petition so far.
The chief executive of Intenze Tattoo Ink was one of the people who shared the petition. He blamed a lack of cooperation on ink manufacturers and said the industry could have headed off the regulations. The people who had no idea about it decided to ban it all.
In the United States, manufacturers rushed to reformulate their products to meet the new standards. One of the leading suppliers, World Famous Tattoo Ink, has a new facility in South Carolina where they fill and package 400,000 bottles every month.
After the City Council lifted a longstanding ban on tattooing, Lou Rubino opened his first tattoo supply shop in New York. The company made its ink in a warehouse. He said that he used to have people fill the bottles with the iced tea container.
For example, World Famous had updated its products to remove a banned substance in Switzerland. Mr. Rubino said that the company had to pay laboratories more to assess whether the products met the allowable limits for the chemicals. World Famous didn't test its products on animals, so employees and their families and friends volunteered their skin to see how the new ink performed.
Mr. Rubino said they had not found a suitable substitute. There will be less blue and green in tattoos if that doesn't work out.
He couldn't say whether the results were safer because he couldn't say how much it cost the company to create new ink. We don't know if these are better or worse because we're adding other things that have never been used before.
Nordic Tattoo Supplies said that World Famous's color products were the first set in compliance with the new regulations that went on sale in January. They had to ration the quantity sold to each customer. The situation is getting better as other manufacturers bring new compliant inks to market, but the selection is still limited, according to a Nordic spokesman. We don't have the same color scheme as in the past.
The staff spent the first three weeks of this year working only in black and gray after throwing out their old color ink. His studios are spending thousands of dollars a month to stock new colored ink. Mr. De Pase said it would take a long time to see how his customers would react to them.
He said that safety must come first, but that needs to be balanced. He observed that a tobacco shop was open all day long. There is a limit to what can be done.
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