About Blacklight Ink

There are a lot of questions about black light tattoos posted in the comments. I thought I would take a minute to address some of them.

The most widely used UV reactive ink is Chameleon Ink which has a few special qualities. The black light reactive dye is encased in polymer microbeads which are suspended in sterile, distilled water. The same polymer that is used to make these microscopic beads has been used in dental prostheses, bone repair, eye lenses, orthopedics and in pacemakers and is better known as Lucite. These microspheres are 4-5 times the size of a red blood cell and are well tolerated by human tissue (no rejection). This means that the dye used never actually comes in contact with your system, but is safely inside the polymer microbeads. This is the same ink that has been used for decades to track fish and wildlife and is approved by the FDA (as far as I know, no other tattoo ink has FDA approval). (Read more about this technology here!)



Blacklight reactive ink comes in a wide range of colors, most of which are visible under normal light. UV inks are not quite as bright as normal inks under regular light. For an "invisible" tattoo, it must be done in white ink on light skin. Some scarring may occur because of the tattoo process that leaves the tattoo still visible under normal light. The Chameleon UV inks are water-based and blend differently than normal tattoo inks. Therefore, UV tattooing should only be done by experience professionals.

Can anyone vouch for any other brands of blacklight reactive ink? I've also heard of Skin Candy Black Light tattoo ink, but don't know how its made/what's in it. As far as I can tell, Chameleon ink is safe and lasts.