When you’ve got a red tattoo, you are more likely to experience a response than should you go with one other shade. This is an e-mail I acquired about tattoo inks:
“Does all red ink have nickel in it? The tattoo artist instructed me that I mustn’t use red ink in a tattoo if I cannot put on cheap jewelry. I can’t. Whether steel or no matter is in ink would trigger the identical response I get to cheap jewelry. That will trigger an issue. She won’t apply it to me. Would this be identical for red or orange or any shade with any red quantity in it? Another person who has had quite a few tattoos instructed me they by no means heard of that, and he or she reacts to cheap jewelry.”
My response:
I might believe the tattoo artist over somebody has quite a few tattoos since she is extra more likely to know the composition of the ink and whether or not her purchasers have had hassle with a selected shade. One other artist may provide a completely different recommendation and use an ink with a different chemical composition.
Key Takeaways: Reactions to Red Tattoo Ink
- Any tattoo ink has the potential to trigger a response. The chance derives from several parts in ink, together with the pigment, the service, and chemical substances added to maintain the suspension sterile.
- Red and black inks produce the very best reported variety of reactions. The colorant in these inks could also be linked to issues.
- Virtually the most poisonous red pigment, cinnabar (HgS), is a mercury compound. Its use has mostly been phased out.
- Natural dyes are much less more likely to trigger reactions or intrude with medical diagnostic assessments. Nonetheless, they degrade over time. Some molecules produced from degradation embody carcinogens.
Why Red Tattoo Ink Causes Reactions
The difficulty with the color red is the chemical composition of the ink. Notably, it has to do with the character of the pigment used for the color. The service for the ink (the fluid half) can also play a component. However, it’s extra more likely to be widespread to different colors.
Some reds include iron. Iron oxide is a red pigment. Principally, it is powdered rust. Whereas it might not trigger a response, it is a rusty-red relatively than a vivid red. Iron oxide inks (which additionally embody some brown inks) might react to the magnets in an MRI scan. Small particles, significantly in red and black inks, have been recognized to emigrate from the tattoo website to the lymph nodes. Migrated pigment molecules trigger well-being points. However, they could additionally seem irregular on medical diagnostic assessments. In a single case, a lady with intensive tattoos had 40 lymph nodes eliminated due to a PET-CT scan mistakenly recognized the migrated tattoo pigment as malignant cells.
Brighter red pigments embody poisonous metals akin to cadmium or mercury. Happily, the mercury sulfide red pigment, referred to as cinnabar, has mainly been phased out of ink formulations. Cadmium red (CdSe) stays in use and should trigger redness, itching, flaking, and different issues.
Organic pigments trigger fewer reactions than metal-based reds. These embody the azo dyes, akin to Solvent Pink 1. Solvent Pink 1 doesn’t begin as many points as iron, cadmium, or mercury reds; however, it could degrade into o-anisidine, a possible carcinogen. Degradation happens over time from gentle ultraviolet publicity (from daylight, tanning beds, or different sources) or bacterial motion. Azo pigments like red Solvent 1 additionally degrade when a tattoo is eliminated utilizing a laser.
Whereas red ink is well-known for inflicting sensitivity reactions, there are different colors made by mixing red. The extra dilute of the pigment (like in orange or red) decreases the prospect of a response from the red element, but the chance remains current.
