Tattoo parlours will not be able to stay in business amid EU ink rules, operator says

Tattoo parlours will not be able to stay in business if they follow new EU regulations banning most types of tattoo ink, an industry leader has said.

Dolores Murray, the founder of the Association of Body Modification Artists in Ireland (Abmai), claimed that parlours will have to defy the new laws if they wish to stay in business.

“This is a hammer blow for our industry. We basically will not be able to do business unless we use the current inks,” she stated.

"We will have to do what we have to do to stay live. We have no choice but to carry on or close down – the same as every tattoo parlour in Europe. "

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Ms Murray runs and operates the Wildcat Ink Tattoo and Piercing Shop in Dublin's Temple Bar.

Updated EU regulations on chemicals, known as Reach (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), were agreed by member states in 2020 and came into force on January 4th.

Under the updated regulations, 4,000 chemical agents used by tattooists are banned, including isopropanol alcohol, the most common ingredient in tattoo ink.

The European Chemicals Agency said the chemicals in tattoo ink can be hazardous, causing "skin allergies and other more serious health impacts, such as genetic mutations and cancer".

Ms Murray said the new regulations are unworkable and she rejected recommendations from the EU that there are safer alternatives available.

“The manufacturers are rushing to get Reach-compliant inks out, but you have got to remember that the whole European market is going to be looking for these things,” she said.

“The chances of these inks being available by the end of this quarter are slim to none.”

Exemption

Ms Murray said there is an exemption until this time next year for coloured pigmentation blue and green ink, but she said these pigmentations are proving to be “impossible to replace”.

“When those two inks are banned it will eliminate 70 per cent of the colour palette that tattooists use at the moment,” she said.

“At the moment you have ink manufacturers struggling to find Reach-compliant inks.”

Ms Murray said the industry across Europe is fighting at an EU level to have the directive overturned.

An association of tattooers in Europe has had a legal assessment stating that there are many inconsistencies in the new regulations. It has been forwarded to MEPs and to the European Commission.

Ms Murray said the new regulations will have the opposite impact of what was planned. It will simply drive tattooing underground, she says.

“It will find its level like water. People will go to tattoo artists who will be using God knows what. The EU is using a large hammer to crack a small nut.”