Many tattoo ink and permanent makeup products contaminated with bacteria, FDA finds

Nearly half of samples taken from permanent makeup ink products and close to a quarter of tattoo ink products were contaminated with bacteria, the Food and Drug Administration found, even in brands that claimed to be "sterile."

Their findings, published Tuesday in the Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal, are just the latest round of FDA tests to turn up contamination in body inks sold in the U.S. 

The FDA has warned for years about the risk of contamination after previous outbreak investigations and studies have turned up pathogens in these kinds of products.