This review is based on the lecture presented at the April 2010 nanomaterials safety assessment Postsatellite to the 2009 EUROTOX Meeting and summarizes genotoxicity investigations on nanomaterials published in the open scientific literature (up to 2008). Special attention is paid to the relationship between particle size and positive versus negative outcome, as well as the dependence of the outcome on the test used. Salient conclusions and outstanding recommendations emerging from the information summarized in this review are as follows: recognize that nanomaterials are not all the same; therefore know and document what nanomaterial has been tested and in what form; take nanomaterials specific properties into account; in order to make your results comparable with those of others and on other nanomaterials: use or at least include in your studies standardized methods; use in vivo studies to put in vitro results into perspective; take uptake and distribution of the nanomaterial into account; and in order to become able to make extrapolations to risk for human: learn about the mechanism of nanomaterials genotoxic effects. Past experience with standard non-nanosubstances already had shown that mechanisms of genotoxic effects can be complex and their elucidation can be demanding, while there often is an immediate need to assess the genotoxic hazard. Thus, a practical and pragmatic approach to genotoxicity investigations of novel nanomaterials is the use of a battery of standard genotoxicity testing methods covering a wide range of mechanisms. Application of these standard methods to nanomaterials demands, however, adaptations, and the interpretation of results from the genotoxicity testing of nanomaterials needs additional considerations exceeding those used for standard size materials.