Scope
Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/2081 amends REACH Annex XVII to restrict substances in mixtures for use for tattooing purposes and permanent make-up. Appendix 13 to entry 75 states specific concentration limits by weight for selected metals and metalloids.
Exact limit and units
| Metal | Limit | Unit | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 0.00005 | percent by weight | mixture for tattooing or permanent make-up |
| Nickel | 0.0005 | percent by weight | mixture for tattooing or permanent make-up |
| Antimony | 0.00005 | percent by weight | mixture for tattooing or permanent make-up |
| Arsenic | 0.00005 | percent by weight | mixture for tattooing or permanent make-up |
| Cadmium | 0.00005 | percent by weight | mixture for tattooing or permanent make-up |
| Chromium VI | 0.00005 | percent by weight | mixture for tattooing or permanent make-up |
| Lead | 0.00007 | percent by weight | mixture for tattooing or permanent make-up |
Organometallic tin appears in Appendix 13 at 0.00005 percent by weight, but it is not loaded as elemental tin because the row regulates an organometallic-tin compound class rather than a source-stated tin species concentration.
How tested
The Appendix states concentration limits by weight for substances in tattooing and permanent make-up mixtures. The regulation also requires labels and batch-reference information for covered mixtures, but the numeric metal entries themselves are concentration limits rather than exposure limits.
Enforcement posture
The restriction is a statutory REACH Annex XVII restriction. Mixtures for tattooing or permanent make-up that exceed the applicable concentration limits may not be placed on the market for, or used for, those purposes after the applicable transition dates.
History of changes
Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/2081 was adopted on 14 December 2020 and published in the Official Journal on 15 December 2020. Most entry 75 restrictions applied from 4 January 2022, with separate transitional treatment for specified pigments outside the heavy-metal rows loaded here.
How it compares
The REACH tattoo-ink values are lower than broad cosmetics impurity allowances because they are specific concentration limits for substances in tattooing and permanent make-up mixtures. Nickel has a higher numeric ceiling than the other loaded metal rows, while lead is set at 0.00007 percent by weight.
Sources
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 7 sections added |