Tattoos and permanent make-up (PMU): national statistics and adverse health effects data

Nowadays, tattoos are considered body art and are largely spread. They are applied by injecting coloured inks into the dermis and are meant to stay life long, thus resulting in long term exposure to the chemicals injected including their degradation products. Permanent Make-up (PMU) consists in (semi)permanent tattoos used to resemble make-up. This dataset originated from replies to questionnaires, peer-reviewed literature and national reports, has been used to address the issue of the safety of tattoo/PMU products and practices with a view to contribute to consumers' health protection:

1 - National statistics on tattoo and permanent make-up such as age of individuals for their first tattoo, number of tattoos/person, size and localisation of tattoos, skin exposure, tattooed individuals, number of tattooists, list of colorants in use in tattoo/PMU inks.

2 - Adverse health effects linked to permanent make-up applications and removal such as frequency of health issues amongst people having undertaken tattoo/PMU, complication following tattoo/PMU application/removal, adverse health effects (e.g. allergy, inflammation, infections, local and systemic side effects).