Permanent makeup paints: how safe are they?

How safe are tattoo inks? Attempts to unambiguously answer this question have led to a sharp controversy that unfolds on the pages of European cosmetic publications and threatens to turn into a real war. A number of experts say the following: being carried away by tattooing, we cause ourselves irreparable harm to our health, driving toxic substances under the skin that cause allergic and oncological diseases. This, according to them, is evidenced by the results of detailed chemical tests. Others, no less competent experts, say: the danger of these paints to our health is inflated from a fly to the size of an elephant. Each side offers its own arguments, which we present to your attention.

Chemistry Lesson: Tattoo Paints

Any paint is a mixture of chemical components that can interact with each other and with the environment they enter. Naturally, when it is not about an abstract environment, but about our body, the topic of chemical reactions becomes very close.

What is the ideal tattoo ink? First, it must not be toxic. Secondly, it must have a number of important properties. First of all, stability and stability, which will not allow it to disintegrate into its constituent parts (it is the instability of bad pigments for tattooing that sometimes leads to the fact that the tattoo sometimes quickly “sheds” or even completely changes color). Then - inertness, which will not allow the pigment to interact with the liquid - in this case, with the tissue fluid and blood of our body.

What should not be in tattoo ink?

Tattoo ink should not contain organohalogen compounds. This is a group of substances, which include chlorine, bromine or iodine - they are toxic and can cause a variety of complications (up to malignant neoplasms) that can appear even after considerable time intervals. In addition to clearly unacceptable, tattoo inks contain ingredients that can rather be called debatable.
These include, for example, azo dyes. Decaying, some of them form harmful compounds - aromatic amines, which are carcinogens. By the way, the use of a number of azo dyes in civilized countries is prohibited by law. However, there are azo dyes that are considered harmless: they are used by the food and medical industries.

Another debatable group of components is heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, lead, nickel, chromium). They are somewhat present in tattoo inks: for example, green inks often contain chromium, which is actually the carrier of the green pigment. The main thing here is the concentration, the dimensions of which are declared by strict standards. Many tattoo inks contain glycerin. As a rule, our body has nothing against this, however, pure glycerin, especially in undiluted form, can dry out the skin. To prevent this from happening, water is added to high-quality tattoo inks.

If there are tattoo inks, there must be solvents. The requirements for them are extremely simple: maximum chemical purity (ie, the absence of chemical impurities) and a minimum of components (the fewer components, the less likely they are to interact with each other, with paint and skin). As for emulsifiers, fragrances, preservatives, the requirements for them are the same: they must pass a test for toxicity, irritant properties, and allergenicity. However, you can expect a dirty trick from them to a lesser extent - if only because their concentration in tattoo paints is small.

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Sensation or...

Professional practitioners of tattooing are somewhat skeptical of the pundits' debate. Cosmetologists believe that the “war of tattoo colors” is just another sensation. Of course, there were, are and will be complaints about the poor quality and unpleasant consequences of tattooing. Experts are convinced that these complaints are provoked by the professional failure of inexperienced tattoo artists, as well as tattoo artists who work on the face with equipment and paints designed to work on the body, and not on the face. It must be remembered that in Europe it is forbidden to work on the face with tattoo inks, we neglect this, since they are much cheaper than professional pigments. Yes, and there can be any number of reasons: non-compliance with micropigmentation technologies, work on tattoo equipment, neglect of elementary rules of hygiene and processing of tools, etc.
If we return to tattoo inks and talk about products from serious manufacturers that undergo full clinical trials, including tests for long-term effects - carcinogenicity, embryotropism (effect on offspring), sensitization, etc., then, according to practitioners, there is no no reason for any discussion at all.

However, this does not mean that cosmetologists are against the toughest discussions. Of course, any substance that enters the body requires control, and uncompromising control. Tattoo pigments are no exception. However, a serious analysis of a cosmetic product is part of a completely natural process of its improvement. And there is nothing scandalous in this process.