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90% of tattoo ink contains chemicals that can cause organ damage
- iamthirsty 3y ago> Out of 54 inks, 45 contained unlisted additives and/or pigments Seems unlisted additives is incredibly common in almost every industry in the United States.
- serf 3y agoyou could probably just say 'every industry'. groups around the world are constantly getting hand-slapped for discoveries within their products, it isn't strictly US-centric -- even if this specific article is.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoI don’t understand how constantly and randomly testing food/vitamins for at least lead and other heavy metals isn’t a popular enough position to get funded. Who wants lead in the cinnamon, turmeric, and everything else that everyone is eating? Surely, even the richest and most influential people would be incentivized, if not for themselves, then for their kids to have a supply chain that is checked for contamination. Or how long it’s taking for leaded propeller jet fuel to be outlawed.
- nerdponx 3y agoBecause the risk is abstract and seems distant, so it's something that most people probably want but aren't thinking about actively fighting for. They might already think that these things are better regulated than they are, and not realize how unsafe consumer products are. And on the other hand there are strong financial interests that are opposed to it, who are willing to spend a lot of resources on propaganda and bribes.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoBut how can the risk be abstract. It is molecules known to cause brain damage, surely at least by the educated leaders in Washington DC and their rich influencers. If you asked them to have their kids or grandkids live in a lead paint home and play with lead toys, they would surely say no. But lead in spices that gets ingested daily is not a concern for them? And it's not like testing for them would make a dent in the budget. And surely a significant majority take vitamins or supplements at some point. Who wouldn't want their vitamin to be what the bottle says?
- buildsjets 3y agoFor example, MCAS on a Boeing 737 MAX.
- DueDilligence 3y ago[dead]
- wkat4242 3y agoHmm if this was so bad, wouldn't we notice? I tend to take the more established artists, not the biker dudes so I imagine they use decent materials.
- evantbyrne 3y agoI'm skeptical that your tattoo artist is scientifically testing the long-term health effects of their ink, regardless of how popular they are.
- wkat4242 3y agoNo but I would expect them to pick reputable brands that do.
- evantbyrne 3y agoPopular brands for all kinds of things routinely contain toxins. There's simply no way to know unless you know the specific products, and those products have been tested. If mainstream brands can brazenly sell sunscreen with benzene and eye drops that kill people because they are produced in facilities where people don't wear shoes, then I don't see why tattoo ink should be assumed to be nontoxic in the wake of this news. Is American tattoo ink even produced in facilities that are capable of such quality controls, let alone regulated?
- wkat4242 3y agoI don't think the tattoo ink they used on me was made in America. I doubt it. All tattoo ink sold and used in Europe is regulated as per ResAP 2008: https://rm.coe.int/16805d3dc4 https://rm.coe.int/16805d3dc4
- zifk 3y ago100% of water contains chemicals that can cause organ damage
- iamthirsty 3y agoBeware the dangers of Di-hydrogen Monoxide! https://www.dhmo.org/ https://www.dhmo.org/
- raxxorraxor 3y agoCould be tritium oxide, which can also cause major danger to organs.
- downrightmike 3y ago[flagged]
- 10u152 3y agoDon’t do that. Facts and logical thought please not blaming the boogeyman for all problems.
- bdcravens 3y agoFiltration options exist. Is there a mechanism to put a filter on someone's tattoo gun?
- croes 3y agoOn the US market.
- hprotagonist 3y agoNot very surprising that the real bad boys like azo dyes are in color ink. It's very convenient that my aesthetic preference is for blackwork!
- kapilvt 3y agohttps://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/caveat-emptor-90-of-tattoo-inks-have-unlabeled-or-mislabeled-ingredients/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/caveat-emptor-90-of-...
- HermitX 3y agoEvery time I see a beautiful tattoo, I always feel an itch, eager to try it. But whenever I think about how much more troublesome it would be to remove these tattoos if I changed my mind, I back down. So, I haven't even started to worry about whether these inks could potentially harm my organs :-p
- cafard 3y agoSomebody in Maryland with a tattoo-removal business said that the ratio of the cost of tattoos to the cost of their removal was roughly that of the cost of a marriage license to the cost of a divorce.
- teaearlgraycold 3y agoYeah I’m shocked how many people think they can be happy with that decision until they die.
- iamthirsty 3y agoHonestly (I have a large amount of both color & black-n-white ink) once you break the barrier on your first one, most people abandon the worry of the forever part and the flood gates open.
- wkat4242 3y agoWell put. Exactly how I feel since I got my first one. I used to worry about that but soon you'll have so many that that first one is not something that stands out :) Because there's so many. People always admire them and it's a good ice breaker. If there's anything I regret it's not doing it earlier.
- mathgradthrow 3y agoeasy, its not as long as you think.
- neom 3y agoI love all my tattoos dearly, I put at least a year thought into each of them, from 18yr to 40yr old I love every tattoo I got along the way! My most recent: https://s.h4x.club/6quXNG6R https://s.h4x.club/6quXNG6R (UV ink!)
- aeturnum 3y agoWorth remembering a few things: - This isn't 90% "of tattoo ink", it's 90% of the inks they tested. Most tattoo ink is black, which their tests indicate is accurately labeled (edit: black ink is mostly just the element carbon so this isn't surprising). - This kind of problem is why experienced tattooists will test colors on peoples' skin to look for reactions. - Tattooing, though under-studied, depends on the ink largely sitting under the skin but generally being stable. While it's totally possible that decay over time could expose your organs to the contents of the ink, when it works well the ink is just sitting there so risks should be low. - Obviously this should be corrected and is a real indictment of the medical community's position that they won't study tattooing as a procedure we could improve (the general position on tattooing is "don't do it").
- wkat4242 3y ago> Obviously this should be corrected and is a real indictment of the medical community's position that they won't study tattooing as a procedure we could improve (the general position on tattooing is "don't do it"). Sounds like the Catholic stance on sex outside of marriage. Abstention basically. Just because they wish people don't do it, it doesn't mean the government has no responsibility for safety. It's not illegal after all. I'm glad here in Spain they take this kind of stuff more seriously. For example if you are promiscuous you can receive free STD checks every 3 months. Even though it's a mostly Catholic country :) I'll ask about ink check programs too.
- bcatanzaro 3y agoThe amount of ink that goes into the skin is tiny - maybe a gram of ink for a normal size tattoo. So when they get upset about ethanol or even propylene glycol - I wouldn't think the amounts are large enough to be very significant. When it comes to dyes though - I would be afraid of some of those bright colors, I have no idea what they are using and a lot of dyes are toxic. My tattoos are all black and gray - even though carbon black also contains carcinogens, I think the history of humans using it for tattoos for thousands of years shows that carbon black tattoos are not likely to cause cancer.
- throwaway17_17 3y agoJust out of curiosity, what is your assumed size for a 'normal' sized tattoo?
- ipqk 3y agoJust because it's been done for thousands of years doesn't mean it doesn't cause cancer. No one's going to be able to relate cancer to a tattoo made a dozen years beforehand, and even now when we have the ability to study it, it doesn't look like anyone really is.
- bcatanzaro 3y agoGenerally that might be true, but I think if carbon black ink caused cancer with any nontrivial probability, the cancer would be likely to start where the tattoo is placed, and people would quickly decide that tattoos were dangerous because they would see the tattoo melting into a cancerous lesion. I’ve literally never heard of skin cancer that come from a tattoo. Tattoos are so common that we would see this effect if it happened.
- noja 3y ago90% of tattoo _inks_, not tattoo ink.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- unsupp0rted 3y agoI always wondered about this. I assumed "surely there must be loads of studies on what happens if a person's back, arms and thighs are covered in colorful tattoos, because nature didn't design us to do this by default". Nature also didn't design us to wear socks, but that seems mostly harmless. I just always wondered about putting ink permanently in skin. People get exotic glow in the dark tattoo ink. That seems nuts to me.
- sharpshadow 3y agoThe EU has banned a lot of tattoo inks in 2022.
- OtherShrezzing 3y agoWould it be reasonable to assume that, if coloured tattoos caused significant organ damage, the medical profession would notice some correlation. Are nephrologist offices suddenly seeing a lot of 30-somethings with tattoo sleeves and 50-something Harley Davidson enthusiasts appearing in their offices?
- mikae1 3y agoMeanwhile in the EU: https://archive.is/20231002184221/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/19/health/tattoo-ink-europe.html https://archive.is/20231002184221/https://www.nytimes.com/20... https://echa.europa.eu/hot-topics/tattoo-inks https://echa.europa.eu/hot-topics/tattoo-inks
- _zagj 3y agoI'll never understand how tattoos became so socially acceptable that 46% of people 30-49yo now have at least one: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/15/32-of-americans-have-a-tattoo-including-22-who-have-more-than-one/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/15/32-of-ame... As if the continual rising prevalence of overweight and obese bodies (which I understand is not necessarily the fault of the individual) wasn't bad enough, people actually pay money to endure pain, risk exposure to bloodborne illnesses, and now apparently also to organ-damaging chemicals, all so they can permanently disfigure themselves to look uglier and trashier.
- nusl 3y agoDislike tattoos and obese folk all you like but I'm not quite sure this is the place to be trashy yourself?
- arp242 3y agoI may be a trashy disfigured individual, but at least I'm able to accept that different people can make different life choices and be happy with them. And I'm happy for them that they're able to make decisions that make them happy. It's really not that hard to not say anything, and to not be a judgemental twat.
- cmiller1 3y agoNot having the awareness that other people have different tastes than you, and may find what you consider ugly to be beautiful, is the trashiest thing of all.
- _zagj 3y ago> tastes That's the thing, tastes change. Peoples' preferences, values, goals aren't static, which is why permanently disfiguring yourself (especially with some trite saying or cliched symbol), besides being trashy, just shows you have poor judgment and poor impulse control. People with tattoos ought to be stigmatized for that reason alone, never mind the ugliness and trashiness of it.
- GuB-42 3y ago> 90% of tattoo ink contains chemicals that can cause organ damage It is not what the study says. What the study says is "Out of 54 inks, 45 contained unlisted additives and/or pigments". I mean, 100% of tattoos cause damage to the body, people know that. The problem is that people would like to know if it their particular case, because of an allergy, it may be worse than usual. And for that, knowing what's in the ink is important, and that's what the article is about.
- dukeofdoom 3y agoJust remember its always on you to protect your own best interest. It's hard to trust Doctors who swear an Oath to do no harm. Tattoo artists don't even don't even need to swear an oath. Though some tattoo artists might be very honourable people. Don't expect them to do the research and critical thinking for you. That's on you. Just two give two recent example from where I live. 1) My city allowed a developer to build townhomes. Probably even got grants for doing it. As long as I remember the land was a transformer station. With maybe 20+ transformers there. Notorious for containing cancerous pcb chemicals. Now families with little children will be living there. 2) A COVID vaccine injured young mother was just offered assisted suicide by Doctors in Ontario. The doctors that told her it was totally safe and effective, are not Samurai and end their life in shame. They'll go home in their BMW and enjoy pizza.
- lr4444lr 3y agoWait, you mean this woman[0]? Her condition is long COVID. Not an adverse vaccine reaction. [0] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12851137/woman-long-covid-euthanasia-canada-nonexistent-quality-life-symptoms.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12851137/woman-lo...
- dukeofdoom 3y agoNo this woman: https://www.bitchute.com/video/ARgAw0YC5aqO/ https://www.bitchute.com/video/ARgAw0YC5aqO/
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tohnjitor 3y agoI'm reminded of this study. "Nanoparticles from tattoos circulate inside the body" https://phys.org/news/2017-09-nanoparticles-tattoos-circulate-body.html https://phys.org/news/2017-09-nanoparticles-tattoos-circulat... https://archive.ph/CcpHF https://archive.ph/CcpHF