Future looking less bright for EU tattoo artists
January 7, 2022
Boris Pramatarov, 33, is brimming with ideas as he enters his tattoo studio, Tattoo Studio Because, located in a quaint neighborhood in southeast Brussels.
"I'm really excited to design tattoos which are very small in size and work on concepts which add meaning to my client's lives," he told DW.
Originally from Bulgaria, Pramatarov has been designing tattoos for four years in Belgium and recently started experimenting with using colorful tattoo inks.
"I find that using colored ink on the skin highlights my designs. The tones are beautiful and colored tattoos look good on the skin," he said.
But his excitement to showcase the color and shine of his tattoos was short-lived after a pan-European ban came into force this week, restricting tattoo inks and makeup which contain hazardous chemicals that could cause cancer and other health risks.
"The pandemic has already impacted our business and now we have this new restriction in our industry. I can still adapt my style of tattooing to just black-and-white designs. But for artists that create only colorful tattoos they might have to shift base outside the EU to continue their work," Pramatarov told DW.
Mikki Bold, a tattooist based in Rouen, France, who has been in the industry for 13 years, agrees with Pramatarov. "I use colors regularly and without colors, an entire part of my work disappears," he told DW.
Safety first
The EU has banned 4,000 chemicals such as some azo dyes and isopropanol alcohol, a common ingredient in tattoo inks. Its chemical legislation, known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) explains that safer alternatives to these harmful chemicals are easily available on the market.
The new rules also apply to tattoo inks imported into the EU, said the European Chemicals Agency. The new restrictions are expected to decrease serious health effects like cancer, chronic allergic reactions and other inflammatory skin reactions related to inks used for tattoos and permanent makeup.
But the ban has resulted in a lot of frustration in the tattoo industry. Around 175,000 tattooists from across the EU have signed a petition to highlight how the new rules would kill their businesses and encourage illegal ink supplies.
The pigments the tattooists are referring to are Blue 15:3 and Green 7, for which there are currently no substitutes available in the market.
"There are alternatives for yellow, red and orange pigments, but we have no qualms about their quality. There is no alternative for blue and green pigments. This leads to the disappearance of 60% of the colors in 2023 and makes colored tattoos impossible," said tattooist Bold.
Viable alternatives?
Acknowledging the concerns of the industry, an EU Commission spokesperson told DW: "We have introduced support measures to help the industry. For instance, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) launched an awareness campaign in particular for small and mid-size enterprises."
Carson Bruns, a biomedical engineering professor at the University of Boulder, Colorado in the United States, has been using nanotechnology to develop tattoo inks with biomedical properties. He explained that there are alternatives to the restricted blue and green pigments.
"At our lab, we're using nanotechnology to develop blue pigments that do not contain the banned chemicals and change color when exposed to heat and ultraviolet light," he told DW.
"So if you went outside and it was a really sunny day and you weren't wearing sunscreen, little blue dots will appear and kind of act like a warning that you should probably put on some form of sun protection to protect your skin. So that's the kind of biomedical aspect of our alternative which we are yet to commercialize in the US and worldwide," he added.
While tattooists and ink suppliers in the EU are trying to come up with more alternatives, Michael Dirks, a tattoo ink expert based in Austria, thinks ink suppliers also need to be wary of labeling their products correctly.
"From now on, it is very important for ink suppliers to specify that the ink is a ‘mixture for tattooing,' as a part of their labeling. Just saying that the ink is 'REACH compliant' is not enough," he told DW.
How do customers feel?
While ink suppliers and tattoo artists are still looking for legal and safe alternatives, some tattoo enthusiasts don't mind getting inked with color the traditional way.
"I would still get a colored one. Like people say cigarettes are bad and keep smoking them or that meat consumption gives you colon cancer over time. But nothing is guaranteed," 24-year-old Hanna Torseke told DW.
Brussels-based tattooist Angelica Spinardi explains that the ban won't really change the demand for black ink tattoos either.
"I don't think people that fall for colors would choose a black tattoo. Moreover the industry is no longer looked at as an underground one and is very professional. In fact, over the past decade inks with little or no metals and which do not harm animals are already being used. I really believe that it is just a matter of time for new colored ink to be commercialized," she said.
Edited by: Rob Mudge