"Tattooing has existed for thousands of years and has recently risen in popularity. This has led to an increase in the potential use of tattoos to identify highly decomposed remains. Current tattoo visualization methods can be inhibited by discoloration of the skin during decomposition. Although the ink is no longer visible, the components of the tattoo ink still remain within the skin and therefore can be used to determine the color and position of tattoos on decomposed remains. In this study, 30 tattoo inks were analyzed to determine organic and inorganic composition. This included the use of x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). XRF and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy data were analyzed using multivariate statistical analyses which determined the differentiation of ink colors was possible through composition including the separation of mixtures of inks. Finally, porcine tissue samples tattooed with dark red ink were allowed to decompose for 19 days and were analyzed using SEM-EDS and compared to pure ink samples. In the analysis of tissue samples throughout 19 days of decomposition, iron, silicon, and magnesium were observed in both the tattooed tissue sample and the pure ink sample, but not in porcine tissue which had not been tattooed. This serves as a proof of concept in the application of the analysis of tattoo ink composition to aid in the identification of highly decomposed remains."--Page ii.
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