For millennia, tattoos have taken their place as an art form. And it seems as if everywhere you go, more people are embracing them as not only an art, but a fashion choice and a form of self-expression.
If you’ve ever gotten one, you may have thought the only concern would be the possibility of infection, but that’s not the case…
Despite the popularity of tattoos, it’s an industry that’s largely unregulated — at least when it comes to the actual ink that is used.
And after research at Binghamton University, we all may think twice before walking into a tattoo parlor…
“The idea for this project initially came about because I was interested in what happens when laser light is used to remove tattoos,” says John Swierk, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator. “But then I realized that very little is actually known about the composition of tattoo inks, so we started analyzing popular brands.”
They even interviewed tattoo artists to see what they knew about the inks they use to produce those tats.
And what they found was just plain frightening.
The team discovered that while tattoo artists generally have a favorite brand, they couldn’t tell the researchers anything about the contents of the ink.
And it gets worse from there… READ MORE...
