Ep. 120 - Tattoo Ink, Toxic or Not?

Welcome healthy friends to the reality of health. I know what you're thinking. Are we really gonna go there? Talk about tattoos. Yeah, let's go there. Not going to down your tattoo. I don't care. That I. Might or might not have them myself. I just want to give you perspective on what's in the ink. Because, you know, you might think. What's wrong with the tattoo, Erik. What's wrong with getting whole body tattoos. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with those. Knock yourself out. I'm going to talk about. What's in the ink because. The content of what you put on your body. It doesn't really matter.

All that much matters to you. And it doesn't really matter to us. So. Whatever floats your boat. But do you know, what's in the ink because this is important. You are literally. Injecting this under your skin, into your body. Do you know what it's made out of? I'm just saying.

Some of the. Stuff that's in these inks. No big deal. Other things, big deal. Now. This. Article here. Um, that Sarah Everetts wrote. Is spot on. So instead of going through a bunch of tabs, like I usually do. I'm going to mostly read, well, pretty much read from a lot of this, but then I'm going to interject my thoughts on certain things she's talking about. That way. We stay more concise and. Maybe. We can. Come to an agreement that yeah, Erik. I want my tattoo and yes, I'm willing to.

Inject. Ink. That I don't know what it is, where it comes from. If it's regulated. And then I'm going to poke my skin with a needle. Like. Tens of thousands of times. I understand the risks. We'll do you. We're gonna talk about them. All right. Enough of the intro. Let's just get into it already.

I like this article. It's pretty good. And, uh, I think it, I think it, uh, does a really good job. It's not too detailed. I'm going to get a little detailed. Otherwise. Pretty good. Pretty good. Uh, yeah. It's a pretty good. Article.

What chemicals are in your tattoo? Well, they can be repurposed for the car paint. Plastics and textile diet industries. And by the way, That's a really small list. It's in everything. Like your printer ink is made from these dyes. There are dyes that are mostly.

Um, they're not created to be a dye. They are the. Waste product of making other things. And not doesn't mean it's bad unless it is. There's lots of things we make and the byproducts are just fine. Actually might be healthy for you. But. In this case.

This is not great. Okay.

I highlighted the things I want to talk about.

This comes from the, uh, European science open forum. Yes, this was done in Europe. You know, their standards for chemicals and toxicity is much higher than it is here. California's pretty good about it too. They really do care about the chemicals in the environment, in your food. In the things that you buy. It's worth listening to matter of fact. Uh, right now on the planet. They're there doing the work.

Here we go. Knowing the ingredients and provenance. Of the colorful cocktail injected beneath the skin is not.

But talking about, it's not commonplace to know.

It's not widely known by the general public that the pigments found in tattoo inks can be repurposed from the textile plastics or paint car paint industry. Said McGarry. Who works at joint research center. That becomes important because this article is from the European science open forum. And the joint research center.

Which provides independent, scientific advice to the European commission. Okay, you got it.

Patchy. Regulatory oversight of tattoo inks in the European union. And about. A tattooing culture in which consumers rarely questioned tattoo artists about the origin of the pigments. That decorate their bodies. Hmm.

Yeah. We just don't think about it. We go, no. It's a big deal. So we'll get a tattoo. Couldn't be anything wrong with it's totally normal. Lots of people do it. Well, not a lot of people do it. Here's Europe, only 12% of the people. Australia. About the same. New Zealand, 20% United States. 21 to 24% of the people actually get a tattoo in Canada. At 24. So it's not as many people as you think. According to a report.

The GRC released this year, European regulators and others are concerned that pigments used in the formulation of tattoo and permanent. Makeup inks are not produced for such purpose and do not undergo any risk assessment that takes into account their injection into the human body for long-term. Permanence. Meaning. No, one's really looked at it. So what are the risks?

Well, we don't know. There's no money. There's no funding. We're just going to stick this into people and hope for the best.

The report notes that in the U S and Canada policies that govern tattooing are also spotty. You think. In those countries. The procedure is regulated at state or provinkial levels, generating quote, a wide variety of guidelines in hygiene standards. Which means they don't have a standard it's all over the place. Nobody really knows. Ask your county, ask your Providence. Providence.

Yeah. Providence. What are the, uh, regulations for the type of ink that you're injecting into my body? Well, we don't really have any so much. I mean, we have some ideas. We have some thoughts. I don't know what other countries do. Well, they don't have the money either. So, no, one's really kind of putting it together.

You see. This is the problem right here. No one. Is doing the research.

Tattoo artists also have concerns. Yeah, that makes sense. They don't want to hurt you. They kind of like you. You know, they make money from you and they get to do their art. They don't want to hurt you. Quote. There are certainly really good producers of ink, but some of the inks on the market weren't intended for tattooing. What were they intended for then?

That's my question.

They just put them in a fancy bottle, put a dragon on the bottle and right tattoo on it. It says Jens Um, Bergstrom. Who has been a tattoo artist for 20 years and owns the heavenly ink tattoo and piercing studio in, I can't even pronounce that Sweden. That's how easy it is. And that's the danger said Bergstrom. Who was a panelist at that E S O F conference. Yeah. So even the artists have a problem with this. You know, they're handling this stuff too.

They don't want to get sick. And by the way, they also tattoo themselves. So they're kind of concerned with what they're seeing. Especially when the artists that know about this stuff are saying, you know what? We don't know at all, what's in this, what it's made of, Hey, what is that? Purple may not have. Well, I don't know. Uh, something purple. Well, is it a mineral? Is it a chemical made in lab? What is it? We're going to show you. Well, not totally show you, but I would refer to some stuff. The 118 page JRC report, which compiled surveillance ingredient analysis and adverse reaction data found that tattoo and permanent makeup products containing dangerous substances or contaminated by what. Microbes. Are available on the EU market. The main risks identified in descending order are the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons primary aromatic amines. Micro organisms. Heavy metals. And preservatives. All right.

This is the crux of why this episode exists. If you've made it this far. Because a lot of you are just going to turn this off. Cause you don't want to talk about your tattoo. You don't want to know what's in there. It's already done. It's permanent. Yeah. That's why it's important. When you're wondering why you don't feel well, this could be one of the reAZOns. When you wonder why you have a certain issue. That is undiagnosed. It could be from these things, all of these things. Have side effects in the body. I'm going to kind of show you.

What's really going on. Bear with me.

The main point is.

presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. What are hydrocarbons? Hmm. Yeah. We're not going to get in the weeds on that one, but let's just say they're not good. And they are. Deleterious to the body. Primary aromatic amines. Uh, again, not going to go in the weeds because you know, when I started this whole thing, I said right off the bat from the very beginning, not going to get into really long words and make things completely just. So nerdy. That you turn off, you don't want to listen. Just know they're not good. The things you do understand are things like microorganisms, heavy metals and preservatives. Watch what happens one way we go further.

You're going to see this ready. Most consumers are aware of the infection risks, but few are aware of the chemical risks. Yes, they have no idea that they're chemical risks. But why do you get an infection when you get, why do you, some people get an infection when you get a tattoo? Hmm. Could it be because you're puncturing the skin.

Number one you're putting in. Microorganisms heavy metals and preservatives and the body goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. No, no, no. Nope. That's not how those things are supposed to go into my body. Now I have to call out the Navy seals. And they're going to rush to that area and do what they got to do to clean up that mess. That's called your terrain. That's exactly what happens. You can get. Quote infected from getting. A tattoo. Are you actually infected?

No, you're not infected. Your terrain is going there to clean up. Heavy metals, preservatives microorganisms. And a bunch of other chemicals that are created and or in the ink.

ording to the JRC report from: 2005

We're responsible for two thirds of the tattoo related alerts sent to the European authorities. The GRC reports.

That means we are importing two thirds of the tattoo. Reported. Alerts from our ink. Really. Oh, but american products are the best. There are fantastic. But apparently we don't care about people who get tattoos. We're just shipping them ink. ink is an amazing substance and it can come from natural or chemical. Uh, man-made substances.

It can be very expensive inks throughout all of history. Sometimes we're the most prized possessions, the most expensive things. Yeah. So a tattoo could have religious purposes because it was so expensive or it had a.

Godly. a further realm. I'm going to get there. If I had these tattoos, there were so many reAZOns people did tattoos. Now we just do them for fashion. If, you know what I mean? Uh, further one quarter of these problematic inks came from China, Japan, which blows my mind because Japan is very, very clean. In some European countries while the provenance of 9% of products was unknown, they know where it comes from.

It could go from anywhere. Don't worry. Customer. I'm going to use this green ink. To do this thing on your, on your body and this tattoo and. I don't know where the ink comes from. I don't know if it's america. I have no idea, but it's a really awesome green. So what do you mean you don't where it comes from? What do you mean?

So what is it? I don't know, but don't worry. I've used it before.

We don't know, this is the problems, what I'm trying to say. I'm not dissing tattoos. I just want to know where the inks come from. And is it healthy or not? According to the JRC report, the bulk of tattoo health complications involve allergic reactions in hypersensitivity, mostly in red or black areas tattoo. Complications involve allergic reactions.

That's another term for your body went, whoa, what is this? I don't want it and sends histamines there to solidify the area so that it can send the terrain there to eat it up and clean it up because remember. It's got a lot of heavy metals and heavy metals. Not good. Your body has to clean up heavy metals and it causes a major reaction. We all know that heavy metals. Are carcinogenic.

We'll look at this. So these AZO pigments that these things are made out of, which I'll show you in a second. Potential carcinogen. Uh, yeah, they are definitely carcinogens. Dermatologist. let's see Jorgen. Vedelskov Serup

I butchered that. Of this. Ben. Uh, not even going to try hospital says he's cared for 500 plus problem tattoo cases. Serup told E S O F attendees. He seen lumpy. papulonodular skin elevation from pigment overload, chronic inflammation, long-term light, sensitivity, and other side effects from tattooing. As a doctor. If you do a cosmetic procedure by law, you have to tell the patients the risks. It's amazing that the same is not universally required in tattooing.

He, yeah, because they're injecting things into your body. It's like surgery.

I had an episode on scarring. Then I talked about tattoos. You are damaging. Your body by getting a tattoo. This is partially why.

But this, Papular. Nodular skin elevation. I know somebody who has that right now. And. Yeah, way too much. Black ink.

This is why. These are the weird things that happen. And. You get pigment overload.

You get inflamed. Can I have other problems?

The pink that I've done in here instead of the yellow is the most important things.

Tattoo inks contain. A cornucopia of compounds. Some 100 pigments in 100 additives have been found in these products.

But I thought it was just. Green. Or purple. Or black. How, why are there so many. Pigments and additives. Well that's because most of these were not meant to go onto your skin. They were meant to do all kinds of other things like dye your jeans and not fade. Yeah. It's amazing.

The top chemicals of concern found in tattoo inks, according to the report. are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Such as benzo a pyrene, which is listed as a human carcinogen by the international agency for research on cancer. Yes, it's in there. Wasn't meant to go into your skin. The report notes. P a H S can migrate from the skin to lymph nodes. That's a problem. Your lymph is kind of like the sewer system of your body. And if he gets overloaded with really bad toxins, that's a problem.

Not going to get into that right now. These problematic chemicals are found mostly in black inks and are most likely impurities from. industrial production. In fact. Some tattoo formulations are only between 70 listen up. To 90% pure the report says. Wait a minute. Then what's the other 30. 10 to 30%. We have no idea. Nobody's testing for it.

There's no regulations. So what did you just inject into me? I have no idea.

Tattoo inks may also contain potentially harmful metal impurities, such as chromium, nickel, copper, and cobalt. And by the way, You might say Erik it's copper. It's good. For me. Chromium helps balance blood sugar. Well, that's not how you're supposed to get those. We just put them right directly in your skin and not through digestion, bad things happen. Those are not good unless you consume them through food. This is bad right here. This right here is really bad.

Tattoo pigments themselves can be health hazards.

If the ink is really bright in color, it usually contains dangerous stuff. That's from Bergstrom himself. He even knows it's dangerous.

Currently stakeholders as the people who make all these inks. Are more concerned about A Z O pigments. The organic pigments making up about 60% of the colorants in tattoo inks. Although many of these, A Z O pigments. Are not of health concern while chemically intact, they can degrade with the help of bacteria or ultraviolet light. Into potentially cancer causing primary aromatic amines. Alright, that was a big one. I don't want to spend too much time on this one, but this is awesome. First of all let's quickly show you what an AZO where, well, let's just tell you about AZO.

So this is leather usa.org, and they're an information site about leather. I wanted to show you really quick here. So these are A Z O. dyes And they're used to. You know, they're like this, they dye all kinds of things. And I wanted to point this out to you, right? Here.

Some of the acid dyes used to color leather have been synthesized using one or more of the banned amines

and maybe convert back to the free amines by perspiration. Yep. You're adding. Moisture and you can change. It's. Activity and. Toxicity.

And here we go. The carcinogenic. Aromatic amines used in producing the dyes may be released from a finished textile by here comes perspiration or saliva. Uh, causing health risks from skin contact or ingestion. All right. If you know me at all, I have talked about toxins in your environment.

Lots of toxins. I had episodes on this and I keep saying you have toxins in your clothes. And your couch in your car all around you. Well guess what. Even the shirt I'm wearing, which I wish it was linen. And totally organic is not that blue that you see right there is probably in the shirt. Erik, you're always wearing that blue shirt and it's because of the background and the whole green screen thing. I don't only own blue shirts. But notice the perspiration or saliva.

All right. So you're wearing that. bra. You wearing those? Spandex pants or whatever those things are called. Yoga pants. Jeans. Uh, that plastic polo shirt, that polyester suit. On and on, they have to color them. And when they use these dyes. It just said right there they're released from perspiration or saliva. That makes carcinogenic aromatic amines.

Yes.

AZO dyes may contain any of more than 20 carcinogenic amines listed under California's proposition 65 requiring the state to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. These carcinogens have been banned in China, Japan, India, Vietnam, and the European union.

This is where I put my thinking cap on and I say, Wait a minute. Japan. In China. Didn't they already make these dyes, like we just saw earlier. Hmm. Hm. Interesting. So they make them. Ship them. And then banned them. In their own country.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

I think you get the point here. It's carcinogenic. And you just shoved it under your skin.

Furthermore during tattoo removal, by some surveys, up to 50% of tattoo owners come to regret their ink. I do. I'll admit it. Right here. On the billions of listeners that I have. That's a joke.

Lasers. Are often used to blast apart, pigments sending problematic degregation products into the body. You know, they have no idea what those things are. They don't they've admitted. We don't know what those are. They're problematic. We have no idea. That's another problem. So you don't know what you put in me because it was green or purple or whatever color.

And then later I decided to get rid of it through laser, and then that's going to make an entire different. I don't believe in molecules in our atoms, it's going to make an totally different other entity of. Whatever that is.

And that could have even more. Negative impact in my body.

Researchers don't know how these degregation products are distributed in the body and how they get excreted. Meisner said. There's a knowledge gap about metabolism of ingredients. Yes, there is and I

I would say that if it's water-soluble. Or oil soluble. There are ways to get rid of it. I think the body has a very hard time getting rid of it. Partially may not even. Get out of the body, you could. You could retain all of it in whatever form it was after it was degraded. We don't know.

Let's see, we just don't know. And this is why sometimes you need to ask the question, do I really need a tattoo? Do I really need to do this or that? What's the outcome? Well, we don't know. Probably shouldn't do it.

Another problematic component of tattoo inks is the preservatives. That can be added to keep microbes from growing in the often nutrient rich solutions. Nutrient rich solutions is you. And why are microbes growing? Because there's poisons there and your terrain needs to clean it up. So bacteria and mold and yeast go there to eat up these poisons.

And when they do that, We've talked about this. A few thousand times now. They are going to defecate and urinate and you're going to feel it. That's all that that is. You did a tattoo.

Or later tried to get rid of it. And the microbes. Meaning your terrain has to clean up the mess. It's not going to feel good.

In one survey of 229 tattoo inks. Think about that? How many tattoo inks are there? I mean. Think about that, like, Tattoos parlors aren't like in every single corner. So. You were to say. How many gas stations are there, how many gas companies. Yeah, I could probably name. And america. 15. Total. Did a 230 tattoo inks!.

Nearly a quarter of inks analyzed contained the antiseptic, benzoisothiazolinone which is a skin irritant. Also 7% of inks in the study contained the preservative formaldehyde, which is classified as a carcinogen. Um, yes. Do you know what stops your terrain from functioning? Formaldehyde formaldehyde is the only substance we know of that stops your somatids your microzymas from turning into what they need to turn into in order to clean up the mess. That's why you can take an organ or tissue, put it into formaldehyde in a jar. And it does not degrade.

That's why.

Prospective epidemiological studies would be needed to ascertain the risk of. carcinogenicity from tattoo inks, constituents, including their degregation products. That means. They're not doing it. They're not at all.

They don't have the money. We are facing a tremendous knowledge gap. This is why it is so difficult to develop regulations. Because there's no money. They don't want to follow the terrain theory.

It's not a theory. It actually works. They, they don't understand that when you inject things under the skin and it's a toxin that the body needs to react and they're saying it will, we know it causes cancer. We're just not sure why. It it's incredible.

in: 2008

I agree. Batch numbers. 100% agree. And the name and address or the manufacturer or the person responsible for placing the product on the market among other things. That's called a label. Which we have on many things. Like your food. Supplements drugs and everything else. But apparently. If you put it in a gun and shoot it under your skin. You don't have to tell anybody any of this stuff. You see where I'm going with this? Yeah, I'm sarcastic. Because this is the stuff that bothers me. You think I'm just going to get a tattoo?

Me and my wife are getting a tattoo or you know, me and my buddies. And then you find out. You have no idea what you just put in your body and neither do they. You see.

Germany has made it illegal for tattoo inks in the country to contain any chemicals on the council of Europe's list of substances banned in cosmetics. Yeah. They're getting serious. What is not safe on the skin is not safe in the skin. Germany's Meisner said. Here here. That should be true for just about anything. Like all the cosmetics and all the soaps and the lotions and the makeup and everything else you put on your skin.

I preach it all the time because yeah, you're absorbing all that. And then you got to deal with it. We have not done. This is awesome. We have not done any market surveillance in the UK. Said Richard pinchen of UK market surveillance representative at the E S O F conference. I'm very concerned about the amount of potential counterfeit. Inks. That are on the marketplace and all these do it yourself kits. That are available. Um,

Yeah. Counter fit inks. don't worry. I know exactly where my ink is coming from. Okay. Hold them responsible. If you're going to get one done by your artist. Why not. Nobody gets forced to have a tattoo. So it's in your own interest as a consumer to ask questions. If the tattoo artists can answer your questions and produce some documents regarding the ink, that's a good thing. Bergstrom said, remember, he's the artist. As a practitioner, it is my responsibility. Yes, it is. That I produce as low a risk as possible. 100% you should do that.

That applies to anybody putting anything in your body. Like. Injections. Or. Pills. I'm trying, I'm trying to be PC here. But he added. Don't just take for granted that all tattoo artists are good. Or all inks. Are good. You are also responsible for your own health.

Yes. That is. Great advice. And so I'm trying to bring awareness to you that that's exactly the point of this whole thing. You need to take responsibility for the inks you're putting in your body. Yeah, go ahead. Get that tattoo. Check it out. There are apparently organic and natural and vegan and yada yada. Inks that you can put in your body.

My point is anything injected under the skin. Your body will attack because it's not supposed to do that. That's why you have skin. It's trite, trying to keep everything in and protect you from outside and do all kinds of wonderful things. And when you go. Nah, I'm just gonna put this foreign substance right inside of it.

Your skin's going to say, wait a minute. What the heck is this? I don't want this stuff. And it's going to do something about it. Erik. You understand? I've got tattoos, never had a problem. Well, what about arthritis? Digestive complaints. Brain issues, mental health, you get sick all the time.

The list is endless. You put your body into a state where it's trying to clean itself up. Well, you know, the sun is what bleaches these, uh, these tattoos out. What if the sun never gets to those tattoos and they bleach out, where do you think that ink is going? Doesn't take much ink. Same with the fillings in your teeth.

Doesn't take much to cause a real problem. Your body has to fight against those heavy metals, the preservatives and everything else in those inks. And you can feel it. I'm just saying. I know cultures do it around the world forever. Most of those cultures use natural, very natural things. And they also lead a really healthy life. Probably it doesn't affect them the way it does us. We don't live.

Good healthy lives here in the first world. Therefore you get tattoos. Could cause a problem. Not anti tattoo. I just want, and that's true for everything I talk about. I'm not anti marijuana, I'm not anti all this stuff. You can do whatever you want to do. I just want you to be informed. Of what you're doing. Then you can make your choice to do whatever it is.

I like topics like this because. People don't really think about stuff like this until it's too late.

Well, That's my take on tattoo ink. 📍 If you have any. Other suggestions for topics. Let me know. Otherwise.

Thank you for listening. Take care of yourselves.