Investigating the chemical composition of tattoo inks

Have you been weighing up the pros and cons of getting a tattoo? If so, you might want to consider exactly what’s in the ink.

Postnova Analytics has published an application study detailing how field-flow fractionation (FFF) ICP-MS can be used to study the size and chemical composition of tattoo ink nanoparticles. The study follows the release of a recent report from the European Commission Joint Research Centre, which found that while some 12% of Europeans have tattoos, little is known about the long-term effects of the chemicals in the inks.

In the application study, FFF was used to reduce the complexity of tattoo inks containing several different toxic metals. Using a Postnova AF2000 FFF system, researchers sorted the tattoo ink constituents by particle size using the interplay between crossflow field separation force and diffusion. Then, using online light scattering and ICP-MS detectors coupled to the FFF system, they were able to determine the particle size and elemental composition of individual components in the ink more accurately than had been previously possible with non-separated tattoo ink samples.

The researchers found titanium dioxide, copper and aluminium oxide in nanoparticles in both solid and dissolved form in several of the tattoo inks under study. The investigated tattoo inks were also shown to contain chromium and nickel — metals known to cause bad skin reactions and cutaneous allergies post-tattooing. The study thus facilitated the identification and quantification of possibly allergenic ingredients that can result in adverse reactions, including infections, right after tattooing or even years later.

Image courtesy of Marina Setti under CC BY-ND 2.0