He warned that the Covid-stricken industry would face more misery next year when more inks currently in use could be banned.
“It’s all rather sudden,” he said. “There should have been a lot more preparation.”
Brussels said the consultation period for the new legislation began in 2016 and the official regulation introducing the restrictions was made public in December last year.
The Commission’s chief spokesman said: “This is not something which is either a surprise or a complete novelty. “It is a sort of generalisation of practice which is already existing in quite a few member states.”
Eurocrats argue that alternatives to the banned inks exist, and have given tattoo artists and suppliers until next year to find replacements for green and blue inks, but suppliers say the products are too slow to make their way from manufacturers to shops.
The EU said tough regulations governing tattoo inks were needed because an estimated 12 per cent of Europeans are now inked, according to its own figures.
But Ms Petit said the changes could instead force the industry underground and away from regulators, in what she described as a much bigger danger to public health.
According to the country’s union of tattoo artists, three-quarters of Belgian shops do not have a supply of ink that conforms with the EU’s new regulations, with manufacturers struggling to fulfil orders for alternative solutions.
“We already see lots of tattooists going to work behind closed doors and shutting their parlours,” said Ms Petit.
“The fact that Europe is making tattooing a very hard business, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact they don’t understand how the industry works… it’s like a Pandora’s Box opening now,” she added, warning of the emergence of backstreet parlours.
Michl Dirks, who is behind a “Save the Pigments” petition which has collected over 176,000 signatures, insisted the ban is not backed by science.
Erich Maehnert, a co-organiser of the campaign, also warned the ban would push people to secure supplies illegally from foreign countries.
“They continue to obtain their tattooing products without any checks and without the possibility of tracing them,” he said.
Britain will not automatically follow the EU’s ban on coloured tattoo ink under its own REACH chemicals regulations.
A Defra spokesperson said: “A UK REACH allows the UK to make its own decisions on the regulation of chemicals that are based on the best available scientific evidence, ensuring that chemicals remain safely used and managed.
“The Government has asked the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to prepare a dossier to review the risk posed by certain substances in tattoo inks and consider the case for introducing any restrictions.”
