Like real estate the price only seems to go in one direction. There are a lot of factors over the past several years that have pushed the prices up and unfortunately, the Canadian government is pushing for changes that will create even more price pressure (and probably fewer choices and smaller supply) for tattoo ink north of the border. It’s tricky being a huge country but a tiny market and usually results in our product availability being at the whims of larger industry demographics (EU, USA) and new rules and regulations they put in place. It came onto our radar a few years ago with the banning of Benzyl Alcohol: a widely used preservative, solvent and viscosity reducing agent in cosmetics and other products for years was seemingly banned overnight in the making of tattoo pigment. Then came bans of specific blue and green pigments, followed by an entirely new regulatory review called REACH that banned 4000+ ingredients and virtually all pigment (in the EU). REACH regulations came into effect January 2022. This sent ink makers scrambling as they knew other national governing agencies would and will soon follow suit leaving them with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unsellable product and mislabeled bottles. Then there's the COVID effect. Product shortages, temporary bans on imports and exports, months of rolling shutdowns and staff quarantines at all levels of production, manufacturing and assembly. Now, the Canadian government is making moves to put their own updated regulations in place regarding ingredients and labeling which at this point in this rant I’m sure you can see where prices go from there…and that’s if makers decide it is even worth it for them to bend to the new rules set in place to sell in Canada. The truth is that we represent a very small percentage of the ink market so it's possible we will see a lot of our choices disappear in our ink selection.   Stay tuned for PT2!