The purity of tattoo inks, screening substances of high concern

nowadays. Currently, there is no harmonized legislation in Europe but from 2022 on, tattoo inks will be regulated
through a REACH Amendment implementing compound-specific restrictions.
Methodology: A screening method based on LC-QqQ-MS was developed and validated for screening 40 substances
of high concern in tattoo inks. An additional quantification method was validated to quantify 5-nitro toluidine
and 4-chloroaniline in tattoo inks with high accuracy. The method was validated according to the total error
approach with an acceptance value of ±20%
Results: The methodology was applied to 86 samples of which 26 are violating the current Resolution ResAP
(2008). 5-nitro toluidine was found in 16 samples, all of them having an unacceptable health risk, with an
average concentration of 29 μg/g basic violet 10, basic red 1, 4-chloroaniline, and basic red 9 were detected 8, 7,
4, and 3, times respectively. Counterfeit products with lower quality were observed.
Conclusion: Our results show that low-quality tattoo inks are easily available to the European consumer. In line
with literature, most infringements were observed with red/brown inks which is not surprising since these colors
are most often associated with adverse health effects.