Tattoo Ink: Types, Details and Side-effects

The Many Varieties of Tattoo Ink

Some people think of bottles of color that a needle is dipped into and pierced into the skin to create a tattoo.

However, today, there are many types of tattoo ink: some ink creates effects under particular lighting, some inks are being developed to easier to remove, and some inks contain natural or homemade ingredients, and some may or may not cause allergic reactions.

Before getting a tattoo, be sure to ask the tattoo artist about the different kinds of tattoo ink are available as well as any enhancing qualities.

Types of Tattoo Ink in Detail

Homemade Tattoo Ink:

Ingredients: Dry pigment from a reliable tattoo supply company, witch hazel, propylene glycol, medical grade glycerine

Pros and Cons: Takes the proper amounts of ingredients and time blending, although many professional tattoers make their own ink in order to get the colors/shades desired.

Henna Tattoo Ink (Mendhi):

Ingredients: henna paste, lemon juice, sugar, and olive or mustard oil

Pros and Cons: Semi-permament, limited to colors and shades of blacks and reds.

White Ink Tattoos:

Ingredients: Can contain metal oxides, vegetable dyes, synthetic compounds or even plastic-based polymers.

Pros and Cons: White inks have gained in popularity making tattoos stand out or "ghost." However, they take a lot of ink to pigment a darker skin color and can fade easily.

UV Tattoo Ink/Blacklight Tattoo Ink (Chameleon):

Ingredients: Can contain (PMMA) Polymethylmethacrylate 97.5% and microspheres of fluorescent dye 2.5% suspended in UV sterilized, distilled water with no preservatives or other additives.

Pros and Cons: A blacklight must be used in order to see UV tattoos, contains NO phosphors, it is not radio active It it does NOT cause cancer, and it has FDA approval as a Spectral Marking [tattoo] Pigment.

Kuro Sumi Tattoo Ink:

Ingredients: Based on metal salts and oxides. Some inks use small amounts of glycerin, which can be made from animal, plant, or synthetic sources.

Pros and Cons: Kuro Sumi tattoo ink is considered to be 'vegan' (made from all vegetable ingredients) and considered safe.

Intenze Tattoo Ink:

Ingredients: Proprietary, contains some metals.

Pros and Cons: A popular brand used by many tattoo artists with good results. No public listing of ingredients.

Tattoo Ink Colors:

BLACK: Made of iron oxides, carbon, or logwood. Natural black pigment is made from magnetite crystals, powdered jet, wustite, bone black,and amorphous carbon from combustion (soot). Black pigment is commonly made into India ink. Logwood is a heartwood extract from Haematoxylon campechisnum, found in Central America and the West Indies.

BROWNS, FLESHTONES: Made of ochre. Ochre is composed of iron (ferric) oxides mixed with clay. Raw ochre is yellowish. When dehydrated through heating, ochre changes to a reddish color.

RED: Made of cinnabar, cadmium red, iron oxide, or napthol. Iron oxide is also known as common rust. Cinnabar and cadmium pigments are highly toxic. Napthol reds are synthesized from Naptha. Fewer reactions have been reported with naphthol red than the other pigments, but all reds carry risks of allergic or other reactions.

ORANGE: Made of disazodiarylide, disazopyrazolone, or cadmium seleno-sulfide. The organics are formed from the condensation of 2 monoazo pigment molecules. They are large molecules with good thermal stability and colorfastness.

YELLOW: Made of cadmium yellow, ochres, curcuma yellow, chrome yellow, or disazodiarylide. Curcuma is derived from plants of the ginger family; aka tumeric or curcurmin. Reactions are commonly associated with yellow pigments, in part because more pigment is needed to achieve a bright color.

GREEN: Made of chromium oxide ("Casalis Green" or "Anadomis Green"), Malachite, Ferrocyanides, Ferricyanides, Lead chromate, Monoazo pigment, Cu/Al phthalocyanine, or Cu phthalocyanine. "The greens often include admixtures, such as potassium ferrocyanide (yellow or red) and ferric ferrocyanide (Prussian Blue).

BLUE: Made of azure blue, cobalt blue, or Cu-phtalocyanine. "Blue pigments from minerals include copper (II) carbonate (azurite), sodium aluminum silicate (lapis lazuli), calcium copper silicate (Egyptian Blue), other cobalt aluminum oxides and chromium oxides. The safest blues and greens are copper salts, such as copper pthalocyanine. The copper-based pigments are considerably safer or more stable than cobalt or ultramarine pigments.

VIOLET: Made of manganese violet (manganese ammonium pyrophosphate), quinacridone, dioxazine/carbazole, and various aluminum salts. Some of the purples, especially the bright magentas, are photoreactive and lose their color after prolonged exposure to light. Dioxazine and carbazole result in the most stable purple pigments.

WHITE: Made of lead white (lead carbonate), titanium dioxide, barium sulfate, or zinc oxide. Some white pigments are derived from anatase or rutile. White pigment may be used alone or to dilute the intensity of other pigments. Titanium oxides are one of the least reactive white pigments.

Tattoo Ink Set Resources:

Superior Tattoo

Temporary Tattoo Ink :

Ingredients: pigment, glycerin, film, paper.

Pros and Cons: Temporary tattoos can fade or wash off easily but can be easily changed. Suitable for children as well as adults. Safe.