35 years of the ink tag

35 years of the ink tag

This year marks the 35th anniversary of one of loss prevention’s biggest breakthroughs – the ink tag.

A small device with a fascinating history, the ink tag helped transform the way retailers approached theft prevention, introducing the concept of benefit denial to their arsenal of weaponry in the fight against theft.

So, let’s look at its development and uses.

A little history of the Ink Tag

As Robert L. DiLonardo recently explained in Loss Prevention Magazine, the ink tag was a product borne out of necessity.

It had its genesis in the early 1990s at a time when clothing retailers were looking to implement additional security measures in a bid to combat theft.

At that stage, EAS was common place, but in an age before the super tag and more recent improvements, thieves were finding ways to circumvent it.

“Loss prevention executives began clamoring for better item-level solutions. They were willing to try something radical. The ink tag was ‘it’,” Mr DiLonardo recalls.

Enter benefit denial

While EAS helped identify when an item was being stolen, retailers were hoping to make tagged items even less attractive to theft.

“The radical idea behind the ink tag is ‘benefit denial’—a term coined in 1992 by Read Hayes, PhD, the well-known retail security consultant,” Mr DiLonardo continues.

Benefit denial offers an additional security measure. It acts as a deterrent to theft because shoplifters understand that should they try to get around it illegally, the item they’re seeking to steal will be significantly damaged or even destroyed.

In other words, the strategy denies a shoplifter any benefit for their efforts.

In the case of ink tags, the concept was designed to see permanent dye release into a product when a tag was tampered with.

An explosive beginning

Initial ink tags took much of their cue from similar benefit denial strategies used elsewhere, including the exploding dye pack often employed in bank robberies.

In fact, one of the very first ink tags in Europe heavily relied on this technology. The vials inside them didn’t just break when a tag was tampered with, they exploded.

Meanwhile, other manufacturers were tinkering with different solutions in an effort to make an ink tag that would appeal to US retailers.

The technology had several requirements: it needed to only rupture during illicit removal, and had to be easily manufactured, simple to affix and remove the Point of Sale, and be cost effective.

It took considerable experimentation, and a fair bit of refinement, but by the early ‘90s the technique many ink tags now use had been invented, and the tags began rolling out across the US.

Fast forward to now

In present day loss prevention ink still plays a vital role in thwarting theft. Although EAS technology and security tag strengths have significantly improved in the years since, ink is often used in conjunction with these EAS hard tags to further deter shoplifters from tampering with tags.

And yes, ink still serves as the most effective benefit denial strategy in apparel retail. When the vials of ink rupture due to forced removal, they release permanent ink into a garment that cannot be removed.

You can read more about Mr diLonardo’s personal account of history of the ink tag at Loss Prevention Magazine, or discover more about ink pinheads for your retail establishment here.