Preservatives - blue list of substances with low expected toxicity

A "blue lists" would compromise tattoo ink ingredients with limited likeliness to cause harm. They will not be fully safe, since only basic toxic effects are excluded.

Currently and with the upcoming REACH restriction, preservatives will be regulated under the EU biocide regulation in product type 6, "Preservatives for products during storage". The positive thing is, biocides are regulated as a positivelist and thus were rated as non-harmful for the product type.

Unfortunately, type 6 is described as "Used for the preservation of manufactured products, other than foodstuffs, feeding stuffs, cosmetics or medicinal products or medical devices by the control of microbial deterioration to ensure their shelf life. Used as preservatives for the storage or use of rodenticide, insecticide or other baits."

Thus, preservatives allowed for cosmetics or medecinal products are not necessarily allow for tattoos.

In this review, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00204-020-02655-z, preservatives are listed that will still be allowed (Table 3).

What is your opinion on the preservatives still available? The product type, tattoos fall under? Which preservatives / methods for preservation would you prefer?