BfR Annual Report 2015

highly toxic hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and the human car-

cinogen benzene during the laser removal procedure.

Other breakdown products in aqueous suspensions in-

clude 1,2-benzodicarbonitrile and benzonitrile. Due to

the fact that HCN is a colourless, fast-acting and toxic

gas, it is classified as harmful to health. The detected

maximum values of 30 µg/ml HCN with pigment concen-

trations of above 1 mg/ml significantly reduced the sur-

vival rate of human skin cells in

in vitro

studies.

The individual risks associated with laser tattoo removal

vary depending on size, puncture depth, with the pig-

ment and concentration used, as well as with irradiation

intensity and wavelength of the laser. More scientific ex-

periments are needed to permit a realistic simulation for

the creation of toxic breakdown products in skin samples

after laser removal. Laser removal breakdown products

should be identified and toxicologically assessed for the

most common pigments used in tattooing inks. To this

end, experiments are currently conducted at the BfR

with pig skin that was tattooed

post mortem

. The data

obtained on the breakdown products of colourants dur-

ing these experiments will be taken into account in future

human health risk assessments for tattooing inks.

Product Safety

The individual risks of tattoo removal using lasers vary

depending on size, puncture depth, the pigment used and

the pigment concentration as well as the irradiation intensity

and wavelength of the laser.

The findings of research into tattoo removal were published

in the journal Scientific Reports. (DOI: 10.1038/srep12915)

More information on tattoos:

The colour plays a role: the complete removal of white,

yellow, red and orange-coloured tattoos is often not

possible.