Information
The European Society of Tattoo and Pigment Research (ESTP) was inaugurated on 13th of November 2013 in Copenhagen. The primary goal of the society is creation and communication of true and in-depth knowledge about tattoos which in the world of today involves not only academic researchers and providers of medical care; the know how of tattooists, cosmetic tattoo artists and the ink manufacturers is needed and the root. There is an essential need to bridge between different cultures and professionals to fertilize each other and raise the level of understanding to a high and recognized level in the community and in academia. Bridging also needs to include regulators in the different countries, the European Union and other super-national organs.
The besides other measures, the ESTP organizes a biannual conference to achieve this goal.
The society was highly active in commenting on the current REACH restriction on tattoo and permanent make-up inks proposed by the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) which may soon go into action.
The ESTP comments to ECHA can be found here:
Also, the ESTP send out an open letter to the European Commission commenting on important short comings of the current REACH restriction proposal:
https://estpresearch.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ESTP/2019_openletter_vs_24.10_final.pdf