A TATTOOIST-turned-chemist hopes the public will invest in her crowdfunding appeal.

Alice Nicholls, founder of An79 tattoo and beauty clinic, will be the first tattooist in the UK to produce her own homegrown and multipurpose inks.

The Colchester artist now needs £2,000 to help fund the first set of tests required for the pigments she will use on cosmetic and medical tattoo clients.

This includes people who have experienced hair loss, and women who undergo areola tattooing after breast cancer surgery.

She said: “This is going to be my biggest project yet and wish I could say more about it, but it’s difficult to before the product is launched.

“I love to make my own products to help improve the quality of my business and my work.

“To improve the outcome of a tattoo, I’ve reformulated typical inks used for tattoos and cosmetic artistry to make them better for the skin and to speed up the healing time.

“But to get the product to market, it’s going to cost a lot of money for the sterilisation and specialist testing required.”

The first milestone is gamma ray testing which will “assess what levels of sterilisation the ink can take before it spoils the make-up of the formulation,” Alice explained.

“After this test I need to find a further £10,000 for sterilisation, sterile in transit and shelf life testing before it can go to market.”

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