Tattoo Pigments-Tattoo Inks
Common Ingredients
- BLACK PIGMENTS: made of iron oxides, carbon, or logwood. “Natural black pigment is made from
magnetite crystals, powdered jet, wustite, bone black,and amorphous carbon from combustion
(soot). Black pigment is commonly made into India ink. Logwood is a heartwood extract from
Haematoxylon campechisnum, found in Central America and the West Indies.”
- BROWNS, FLESHTONE PIGMENTS: made of ochre. “Ochre is composed of iron (ferric) oxides mixed
with clay. Raw ochre is yellowish. When dehydrated through heating, ochre changes to a
reddish color.”
- RED PIGMENTS: made of cinnabar, cadmium red, iron oxide, or napthol. “Iron oxide is also known as
common rust. Cinnabar and cadmium pigments are highly toxic. Napthol reds are synthesized
from Naptha. Fewer reactions have been reported with naphthol red than the other pigments, but
all reds carry risks of allergic or other reactions.”
- ORANGE PIGMENTS: made of disazodiarylide, disazopyrazolone, or cadmium seleno-sulfide. “The
organics are formed from the condensation of 2 monoazo pigment molecules. They are large
molecules with good thermal stability and colorfastness.”
- YELLOW PIGMENTS : made of cadmium yellow, ochres, curcuma yellow, chrome yellow, or
disazodiarylide. “Curcuma is derived from plants of the ginger family; aka tumeric or
curcurmin. Reactions are commonly associated with yellow pigments, in part because more
pigment is needed to achieve a bright color.”
- GREEN PIGMENTS : made of chromium oxide (”Casalis Green” or “Anadomis Green”), Malachite,
Ferrocyanides, Ferricyanides, Lead chromate, Monoazo pigment, Cu/Al phthalocyanine, or Cu
phthalocyanine. “The greens often include admixtures, such as potassium ferrocyanide (yellow
or red) and ferric ferrocyanide (Prussian Blue).”
- BLUE PIGMENTS: made of azure blue, cobalt blue, or Cu-phtalocyanine. “Blue pigments from minerals
include copper (II) carbonate (azurite), sodium aluminum silicate (lapis lazuli), calcium copper
silicate (Egyptian Blue), other cobalt aluminum oxides and chromium oxides. The safest blues
and greens are copper salts, such as copper pthalocyanine. Copper pthalocyanine pigments have
FDA approval for use in infant furniture and toys and contact lenses. The copper-based
pigments are considerably safer or more stable than cobalt or ultramarine pigments.”
- VIOLET PIGMENTS: made of manganese violet (manganese ammonium pyrophosphate), quinacridone,
dioxazine/carbazole, and various aluminum salts. “Some of the purples, especially the bright
magentas, are photoreactive and lose their color after prolonged exposure to light. Dioxazine
and carbazole result in the most stable purple pigments.”
- WHITE PIGMENTS : made of lead white (lead carbonate), titanium dioxide, barium sulfate, or zinc oxide.
“Some white pigments are derived from anatase or rutile. White pigment may be used alone or
to dilute the intensity of other pigments. Titanium oxides are one of the least reactive white
pigments.”
