the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir denounced Thursday the "presence of carcinogenic, neurotoxic or highly allergenic products" in 75% of inks used by French tattoo artists.

A tattoo on the skin for a cocktail of toxic chemical molecules in the body: when a tattoo is performed, the tattoo artist injects inks into the skin whose composition is much less framed than that of cosmetics or drugs.

Thursday, the association UFC-Que Choisir sounded the alarm on a risk of "health danger" concerning the inks of French tattooists.

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The effects of pigments, coloring chemical substances that make up inks, are not analyzed before being sold on the market, notes the consumer association.

However, the inscription remains engraved in the skin for life.

Candidates for tattoos are generally attentive to the conditions of hygiene and sterility of the needles used, but not to the composition of the inks which is often inaccessible, underlines the UFC-Que Choisir in its press release.

"Deleterious effects on health"

The association's experts analyzed the twenty inks most used by French tattoo artists, and the most frequent colors, namely black, red, green and yellow.

The result: "carcinogenic ingredients, preservatives banned from cosmetics and prohibited dyes: fifteen out of twenty inks are disqualified", warns the UFC-Que Choisir.

In black inks, which tattoo artists make the most use of, toxic hydrocarbon derivatives have been found, and for red, green and yellow, pigments "which risk being degraded by releasing aromatic amines that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic. for reproduction and sensitizing ", according to the association, which publishes a dossier on this subject which will appear in March.

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These components are likely to cause allergies which can occur "very quickly after the [tattooing] session, or months or even years later", notes the association.

Without counting possible other "deleterious effects on health which, if they exist, will appear in years", points out the UFC-Que Choisir.

New European regulations, which will apply from December 2021, govern the composition and labeling of these tattoo inks.

The UFC-Que Choisir is asking the French authorities for more control as well as the withdrawal and recall of dangerous products already identified.