The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published a technical report on tattoos and permanent make-up (PMU), looking at use and ingredients, and possible health problems.

Among the main findings that:

tattoo and PMU inks are complex mixtures. More than 100 pigments were identified, the main ingredient. These are not produced specifically for such an application and, therefore, a risk assessment taking account of their injection and permanence in the human body is not carried out. An additional identified risk is the presence of impurities; and

around 95% of the 126 RAPEX [Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products] alerts notified, during the last decade, related to chemical risks: hazardous chemicals and/or impurities (such as carcinogenic aromatic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, sensitisers, preservatives and heavy metals.) The remaining 5% concerned
microbiological risks, which are mainly due to the lack of sterility of the inks. Two thirds of the notifications related to imported products, with the highest percentages from the US.