Tattoos are nothing new, of course. Oetzi the Iceman was found covered with them. If you have time, check out the Discovery News story about his tattoos. Supposedly Neanderthals tattooed themselves too. In Oetzi's case, designs were cut into the skin. Ash, which sometimes included colorful minerals and stones, was inserted before the wounds healed, leaving behind the design.
Animals inspired many a tattoo, both then and now.
(Pic 1; Credit: Xenia)
(Pic 3, Credit: chosfeldt)
A new study, accepted for publication in the journal Science of the Total Environment, found that some tattoo inks contain toxic metals. Giovanni Forte of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome and colleagues purchased 56 inks at 4 different supply companies. The researchers ran them through a barrage of tests to find out what was in them.
"The relative contribution of metals to the tattoo inks composition was highly variable between brands and colors, even in pigments with the same base color," they determined.
Here are the toxic metals they found, in amounts that "might pose a risk for allergies and other skin inflammations as well as for systemic diseases":
Cadmium
Manganese
Lead
Antimony
Vanadium
and
Mercury was found in traces.
"Among the allergenic metals, Cr was the highest (0.315–147 μg/g), followed by Ni (0.037–9.59 μg/g) and Co (0.0028–6.43 μg/g) then," the scientists concluded. "On 56 tattoo inks, Cr, Ni and Co exceeded the safe allergological limit of 1 µg/g in 62.5%, 16.1% and 1.8% of cases, respectively."
This is just one of many studies over the past few years concerning tattoo inks. Another overview is at this PubMed Central page. And a more recent piece, with additional links, is at SuperEco.
Tags: Animals
comments ( )