A tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on your skin with pigments inserted through pricks into the skin's top layer. Typically, the tattoo artist uses a hand-held machine that acts much like a sewing machine, with one or more needles piercing the skin repeatedly. With every puncture, the needles insert tiny ink droplets.
The process — which is done without anesthetics — causes a small amount of bleeding and slight to potentially significant pain.
Tattoos might be more common than ever, but don't take the risks lightly. Understand basic safety precautions and aftercare.
A gruesome list of illnesses and health problems contracted by people who have had tattoos or piercings which went wrong was released by the European commission yesterday in an effort to raise awareness about the dangers of body art.
Up to half of all body piercings lead to acute infections which require medical treatment, and there have been two piercing-related deaths in Europe this year, the commission said.
It added that precious little was known about the chemical structure and toxicity of many of the dyes used in tattooing and warned that many people were effectively injecting car paint into their skins.
When health standards are disregarded -and it said they often were - people anxious to decorate and personalize their body with dye or metal had paid dearly for bad practices. "These practices can bring about viral infections such as hepatitis, HIV, bacterial and fungal infections, allergic reactions such as skin irritation, and malignant lesions such as melanoma, leprosy and other devastating diseases."
Other problems associated with body art were toxic shock syndrome, tetanus, venereal ulcers, tuberculosis and a host of skin diseases, it added.
Tattoos breach the skin, which means that skin infections and other complications are possible, including:
- Allergic reactions. Tattoo dyes — especially red, green, yellow and blue dyes — can cause allergic skin reactions, such as an itchy rash at the tattoo site. This can occur even years after you get the tattoo.
- Skin infections. A skin infection is possible after tattooing.
- Other skin problems. Sometimes bumps called granulomas form around tattoo ink. Tattooing also can lead to keloids — raised areas caused by an overgrowth of scar tissue.
- Bloodborne diseases. If the equipment used to create your tattoo is contaminated with infected blood, you can contract various bloodborne diseases — including tetanus, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
- MRI complications. Rarely, tattoos or permanent makeup might cause swelling or burning in the affected areas during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams. In some cases, tattoo pigments can interfere with the quality of the image.
