Cwielag-Drabek et al. 2025 - Heavy metals in tattoo and permanent makeup inks

Cwielag-Drabek and colleagues measured 12 trace elements in 41 tattoo and permanent makeup ink products available to European consumers after the 2022 REACH restrictions took effect. The source is direct product-occurrence evidence for tattoo inks and related permanent makeup pigments: the authors report finished-ink concentrations in mg/kg, identify EU-limit exceedances, and model dermal exposure scenarios. Mercury was not detected above the 0.008 mg/kg LOQ in any sample, while copper, nickel, arsenic, chromium, and lead drove the main compliance and risk findings.

Key numbers

• Sample frame: 41 commercially available inks, including 27 tattoo inks, 9 dual tattoo/permanent-makeup inks, and 5 permanent makeup inks. Products were purchased within the EU, mainly via EU-based distributors and online stores, between 2022 and 2023.
• Analytes measured: Pb, Cd, Zn, Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Co, Sb, Se, Mn, and Hg.
• Mercury: no sample exceeded the 0.008 mg/kg LOQ; the authors state that no Hg was detected in any analyzed ink.
• Concentrations above LOQ were reported for Pb in 5 samples (average 2.81 mg/kg), Cd in 10 samples, Zn in 20 samples (average 38.81 mg/kg), Cr in all 41 samples (average 58.97 mg/kg), Ni in 24 samples (average 62.98 mg/kg), Cu in 35 samples (average 1751.01 mg/kg), As in 20 samples (average 20.06 mg/kg), Co in 6 samples (average 44.14 mg/kg), Sb in 8 samples (average 16.03 mg/kg), Se in 3 samples (average 18.49 mg/kg), and Mn in 9 samples (average 169.13 mg/kg).
• Table 5 descriptive statistics for all samples, in mg/kg: Pb mean 2.81 and max 7.83; Cd mean 0.13 and max 0.34; Zn mean 38.81 and max 202.18; Cr mean 58.97 and max 246.39; Ni mean 62.98 and max 207.33; Cu mean 1751.01 and max 25,700.80; As mean 20.06 and max 53.57; Co mean 44.14 and max 76.00; Sb mean 16.03 and max 21.26; Se mean 18.49 and max 21.31; Mn mean 169.13 and max 1089.81.
• EU-limit exceedances were recorded for Ni in 24 samples, As in 20, assumed Cr(VI) in 16, Cu in 10, Sb in 8, Co in 6, Pb in 5, and Se in 3. The authors report no exceedances for Hg, Cd, or Zn; no manganese standard was evaluated.
• Permanent makeup subset: 2 of 5 samples exceeded Pb limits; all 5 exceeded the Ni limit; 2 exceeded Co limits; and 2 exceeded the assumed Cr(VI) limit.
• Tattoo-ink subset: 3 samples exceeded Pb limits, 12 exceeded assumed Cr(VI), 8 exceeded Cu, 8 exceeded Sb, 4 exceeded Co, and all samples with quantifiable Ni and As exceeded the applicable limits.

Methods (brief)

The authors analyzed sealed commercial ink products using approximately 0.1 g of ink per sample after shaking. Samples were microwave-mineralized with perchloric, hydrochloric, and hydrofluoric acids. Zn, Cr, Ni, Cu, inorganic As, Co, Sb, Se, and Mn were measured by ICP-OES; Cd and Pb were measured by ET-AAS; and Hg was measured by cold-vapor AFS.

Reported LOQs were Pb 0.80 mg/kg, Cd 0.08 mg/kg, Zn 7.80 mg/kg, Cr 3.68 mg/kg, Ni 7.40 mg/kg, Cu 5.03 mg/kg, As 10.95 mg/kg, Co 3.30 mg/kg, Sb 11.58 mg/kg, Se 14.00 mg/kg, Mn 2.35 mg/kg, and Hg 0.008 mg/kg. The laboratory used element-specific calibration standards and standard-addition recovery checks.

Chromium speciation is the main interpretation constraint. The authors state that ICP-OES does not determine chromium species, then treat measured total chromium as Cr(VI) for risk assessment because REACH tattoo-ink limits apply to Cr(VI). The source therefore supports total chromium occurrence directly and Cr(VI)-based risk/compliance only as the authors’ conservative assumption.

Implications

Certification: This is direct occurrence evidence for tattoo inks and permanent makeup pigments in the European market after REACH restrictions. It supports finished-product occurrence screening in mg/kg for tattoo-ink rows, but HMTc threshold math must not treat the authors’ EU exceedance counts as HMTc standards.

Courses: The paper is a useful example of post-regulation market surveillance: finished consumer products can remain non-compliant even after a detailed regulatory restriction takes effect.

App: The source supports a category-level signal that tattoo inks and permanent makeup pigments may contain quantifiable Ni, Cu, As, Cr, Pb, Sb, and Co. It does not provide brand-safe consumer product rankings for the public wiki.

Microbiome: No microbiome-specific findings.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• tattoo-inks
• makeup-body-paints-bases-fixatives
• lead
• cadmium
• chromium
• chromium-hexavalent
• nickel
• copper
• arsenic-inorganic
• antimony
• mercury-total

Verification notes

• The PDF DOI, authors, year, journal, and license were taken from the article title page.
• Brand names and manufacturer identities are not reproduced in this source page. The study’s product-level supplement can support internal audit, but the public wiki keeps the finding at product-category level.
• The article reports arsenic as “arsenic (inorganic)” in the analytical-method section. Because the measurement is by ICP-OES after acid digestion rather than a chromatographic speciation method, downstream routing should keep the source’s own wording visible and avoid silently substituting it for independently speciated inorganic arsenic.
• The authors’ Table 5 variance values appear internally inconsistent for some elements relative to the reported SD values; this page uses the reported means and maxima and does not reuse the variance values.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. 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.