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Standards & Guidance

Practical, industry-led frameworks that support public safety and real-world implementation.

What we mean by “standards”

TIMA standards are designed to be practical, science-based, and implementable—built by people who understand manufacturing, distribution, and the reality of professional tattooing and PMU. Our goal is to raise the bar without creating impossible requirements.

Six Core Focus Areas

Product Safety & Substantiation

Establish risk-based expectations for product safety documentation, supporting evidence, and defensible product claims. The focus is on helping businesses understand what information should support the safety and performance of the products they manufacture, distribute, or represent.

Labeling & Communication

Promote clear, consistent, and responsible labeling and customer-facing communication. Guidance is intended to improve transparency around product identity, use, warnings, traceability, and other information needed throughout the supply chain.

Manufacturing Controls

Develop practical operational frameworks based on a GMP mindset — supporting consistency, quality, documentation, and traceability without losing sight of how tattoo and PMU products are actually manufactured and supplied.

Traceability & Records

Create practical record-keeping expectations that strengthen accountability throughout the supply chain. From manufacturer and distributor to artist and client, effective records should make it possible to identify products, batches or lots, and where those products have gone when necessary.

Microbiology & Contamination Prevention

Develop guidance focused on reducing contamination risk through appropriate manufacturing controls, testing strategies, handling practices, storage, and documentation.

Adverse-Event Readiness

Help businesses establish systems for receiving, documenting, investigating, and responding to adverse events and product concerns. Effective systems allow the industry to identify problems, take corrective action, and respond responsibly when an issue arises.

Flagship Standard

Chain of Custody

Manufacturer → Distributor → Artist → Client

One of TIMA's key areas of standards development is creating practical chain-of-custody expectations for products used throughout tattooing and PMU.

The principle is simple: a product should be traceable through the supply chain.

TIMA's chain-of-custody framework applies established traceability principles to tattoo inks, PMU pigments, needles, cartridges, skin-contact consumables, and other relevant products.

Depending on the product and its level of risk, this may include:

Risk-based traceability: Higher-risk products may require greater documentation than lower-risk products.
Batch and lot identification: Maintaining records that connect products with their applicable batch or lot information.
Session-level records: Where appropriate, recording the artist, date, client, products used, and associated lot numbers.
Recall readiness: Establishing a clear process for identifying affected products and downstream recipients when a recall or safety concern occurs.
Mock recall exercises: Periodically testing whether traceability systems work as intended.
Digital traceability: Exploring technologies such as QR codes or DataMatrix serialization where unit-level identification provides additional value.

The objective is not record-keeping for the sake of record-keeping. It is to create a system that allows businesses to identify what was used, where it came from, and where it went when that information matters.

How TIMA Guidance Is Developed

TIMA guidance is not developed in isolation. It is shaped through industry participation, expert review, and practical implementation testing.

Where appropriate, guidance is considered alongside regulatory expectations, scientific evidence, and emerging standards so that tattoo and PMU businesses can become more consistent, credible, and prepared.

01

Draft

A working group develops the initial framework using industry experience, available evidence, regulatory considerations, and the realities of manufacturing and professional practice.

02

Member Review

TIMA members review the proposed framework against real-world operations and provide feedback on practicality, implementation, and potential challenges.

03

Expert Review

Relevant scientific, technical, regulatory, and industry experts evaluate the draft and recommend revisions where needed.

04

Publish

Finalized guidance, supporting resources, templates, and implementation tools are made available through Inktegrity.

05

Update

Standards and guidance are reviewed and revised as evidence, technology, industry practices, and regulatory expectations evolve.

From Standards to Implementation

Standards are only useful if businesses can actually put them into practice.

TIMA establishes the framework. Inktegrity provides the education and implementation resources that help turn those expectations into working systems

Through Inktegrity, TIMA members can access resources such as:

Downloadable templates and documentation
Implementation guides and toolkits
Training and education modules
Record-keeping resources
Practical compliance tools
Updates as standards and expectations evolve

This keeps standards development and practical education connected while allowing each organization to serve its distinct role.

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Help Shape the Standards That Shape the Industry

Industry standards are stronger when the people responsible for manufacturing, distributing, supplying, and professionally using these products are part of the conversation.

TIMA provides a place for industry stakeholders to contribute experience, identify practical challenges, review developing guidance, and help build frameworks that protect public safety while remaining workable in the real world.

TIMA unites tattoo and PMU stakeholders to advance industry-led standards, regulatory alignment, and member education, protecting public safety without sacrificing the craft.