Titanium dioxide is reasonably safe. The FDA even considers it safe enough to use in food in the US. (Until recently it was also allowed to be used in food in the EU but they banned that last year.)
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Good guide, thanks. This seems like a nice alternative to the spraypaint method.
I wonder what kind of results you might get if you used a light coating of spray adhesive on the tile, and dusted it with titanium dioxide? That might be easier to apply than mixing and spraying, and cleanup with alcohol also ought to be pretty easy.
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I bought some titanium dioxide few months ago and had terrible results. I think I need to try again using your method. I tried using waterdown PVA glue and painted on with a paintbrush. I probably did not get an even coating and was too thick.
I did add a drop of blue food coloring, just to add a slight tint. It helped seeing full coverage.
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Maybe subtle, but still kinda awesome. You might have the coolest looking circular saw blade around.
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That would be interesting to check out. Something like EasyTack? Might have to try that. You could even cut out a paper stencil of your pattern, or even just the outline of it, making it just a little bigger, stick the stencil on the sprayed tile, then sprinkle the TD where you expect the pattern to laser. Might save a little bit of the TD.
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Exactly what I was thinking, yep!
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Hi Ellen.
I’m excited to have been able to start this conversation. Any techniques that we can share/come up with will only benefit us all!
My favorite thing about the method I documented above is… all I have to do is give a tile a spray of mixture (under a minute), let it dry (for one or two minutes), engrave on high speed, then rinse in warm water (a minute or two). For me, it’s super fast and super easy compared to using sharpies or spray paint.
I’m curious as to your thinking about adding adhesive to this process. How might that improve the workflow? It seems that, at a minimum, it would make the cleanup step harder.
This is not criticism of your idea, I’m genuinely curious what you’re trying to accomplish. 
Thanks!
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I have attempted a variation using Titanium White water based airbrush paint with poor results.
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I tried the titanium based primer with poor results too. It made dark print on the tile but not the subtle Grey tones that I wanted for my picture. Might be OK for strictly black and white images.
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My thinking was that by using the EasyTack, which I already have, that: 1) I wouldn’t have to buy a microspray bottle, 2) I always have EasyTack on hand; and 3) I would only have to spray the tile once instead of having to spray it a couple times. I’m not sure how hard EasyTack is to wash off. I’d definitely want to check that out first before wasting TD on it, that’s for sure! And if it is too hard to wash off, I’d definitely buy a microspray bottle.
I hope to try this, but it’ll be a week or two. We’re finishing putting our flooring down first. We make our own planks, stain, seal, nail down. It’s a little labor intensive and is taking priority right now. I’m just in here making sure I get caught up on all the forums so I don’t have a thousand to go through when I get back to it. Plus my husband is sanding the boards right now, and I can’t help with that. 
But I’ll be sure to let you know when I try!
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This is a link to a test of different sprays I did a while back.
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