Criticized as much as they are adored, tattoos could cause much worse than a few aesthetic regrets.
Riding a wave of unparalleled popularity, tattoos are attracting more and more people. Although the 18-35 age group is the most likely to take the plunge, they concern a very large part of the French population, and at very heterogeneous ages. However, although very fashionable, tattoos are also at the heart of many debates, in the family circle, among friends and even in the professional world. Questions about them very often concern the symbolism, what they represent, the colors and products used by tattoo artists, but less on their effects on health…
In France, around 13 million people are tattooed, or more than one in five French people, but many have no idea what the ink contains or what its effect is on the body. A scientist has therefore studied how the body reacts to ink injections into the skin.
Christel Nielsen, associate professor of occupational and environmental medicine at Lund University in Sweden, has noticed that the body perceives tattoo ink as a foreign body to be eliminated and creates an immune response to “this aggression.” This response causes many of the ink particles to end up in the lymph nodes, which filter out bacteria and damaged or cancerous cells.
Based on this observation, Christel Nielsen conducted new research to find out what impact the presence of tattoo ink in the lymphatic system could have on health. She was able to find that people with tattoos had a 21% higher risk of lymphoma than those without tattoos.
These results raise questions since in France, nearly 11,000 new cases of lymphoma are diagnosed each year, according to the Curie Institute. The researcher adds that the risk does not actually come from the size or appearance of the tattoo, but rather from the date it was done. According to her, the risk seems higher for tattoos done less than two years ago, as well as for those dating back more than 10 years.
Christel Nielsen is not, however, alarmist, affirming that this alone study is not enough to give tattoo recommendations, but it should still be taken into account in the event of possible health problems. The results of this study attest less to a link between the appearance of lymphoma and the presence of a tattoo on the body, than to the importance of strict health rules on the composition of these tattoo inks.