If You're Considering a Tattoo, Read This

By Lindsay Lyon

Tattoos may deposit more than color underneath the skin. Like car paint pigments. And lead.

These are just a couple of the substances that scientists have discovered taint some tattoo inks, raising safety concerns over the widely popular but loosely regulated industry. "Consumers should be aware of the fact that we really don't know what's being injected," warns Linda Katz, director of the Office of Cosmetics and Colors at the Food and Drug Administration. At the moment, the FDA doesn't regulate the inks and pigments used by tattoo artists, even though it's within the agency's authority to do so, and no inks or pigments have been approved for injection. While state and local authorities do oversee the practice, their rules vary, and they're mainly concerned with ensuring sanitation, experts say.

But reports of itching, swelling, rashes, bumps, and other skin reactions have caught FDA scientists' attention. "I'm scarred now," says David Surman, 49, who still suffers the consequences of his $2,000 tattoos two years later; roses on vines that snake up his arms became blisters that itch, bleed, and sting to this day. "I played the guinea pig, more or less."

Agency studies are underway to determine whether tattoo inks pose any hidden health risks.

Meantime, Delaware Valley College chemistry Prof. Ronald Petruso has found what he says are potentially carcinogenic substances manufactured solely for car paint in a yellow-orange pigment he tested. And traces of lead turned up in ink samples analyzed by a Northern Arizona University colleague, Jani Ingram. "It just boggles my mind that the federal government has never set regulations for anything like this," Petruso says. Experts believe these materials are being mixed into ink because they endure. "Look at your car—the color is there for 20 years," says Wolfgang Bäumler, assistant professor of experimental dermatology at the University of Regensburg in Germany. His own study of some 40 inks revealed that most contained potentially hazardous chemicals.

Bäumler and Petruso both note that it's still unknown whether the tainting chemicals actually have health consequences. "We have no clinical evidence that these substances in the long run are either safe or not," Bäumlersays. "It could turn out there's nothing to worry about, but to make this statement at the end of the day, we have to follow up with research." Also worrisome: Animal research has shown that pigment in ink doesn't stay put where it's injected but rather roams to the lymph nodes.

Such concerns have prompted the FDA to investigate. Research is aimed at analyzing the chemical makeup of the inks and how they break down in the body; pinpointing what might be causing certain peoples' reactions; finding out where ink goes when it fades following exposure to sunlight or lasers used in removal; and ultimately determining the short- and long-term safety of the pigments used to color inks, according to an agency report out in December dubbed Think Before You Ink: Are Tattoos Safe? Regulations could follow, depending on the findings, Katz says.

Some experts remain skeptical that the inks can be harmful. "My gut feeling is that we're probably not waiting for the other shoe to fall," says Hilary Baldwin, an associate professor of dermatology at the State University of New York and an American Academy of Dermatology member. Even if these chemicals are questionable, she says, the amount injected is probably small enough to render harm a nonissue—though allergic reactions to pigments are fairly common. Her message: "If you're going to get a tattoo, be cognizant of all the risks," Baldwin says. But "I don't think they're going to kill you."

Credit: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2008/04/15/if-youre-considering-a-tattoo-read-this

The Dangerous Art of the Tattoo

Consider the health risks of this invasive procedure before getting—or removing—body art

By BERNADINE HEALY, M.D.

Tattoos are fast becoming a mark of the 21st century, with one quarter or more of those under the age of 30 adorning their skin with at least one. Whether driven by the urge for personal expression or just plain youthful impulsiveness, most people get tattooed without a clue about the health implications of this invasive skin-puncturing procedure. I'd suggest that all tattooing require a signed consent form outlining risks—the most obvious one being a major case of remorse.

Upwards of 50 percent of those who get tattoos later wish they hadn't. Their regrets become medical when they visit a dermatologist to have the tattoos removed, which is both painful and expensive. In the July issue of the Archives of Dermatology, researchers at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center report on what's behind the change of heart: moving on from the past, problems wearing clothes, embarrassment, and concerns that tattoos could adversely affect job or career.

But tattooing is designed to last forever, delivering permanent ink deep under the epidermis. The skin reacts by protectively encapsulating the alien clumps of pigment in dense fibrous tissue while a few nearby lymph nodes collect what migrates out. For a long time, removal meant surgical excision or deep abrasion of the skin, invariably causing scarring and sometimes the need for skin grafting. In the preferred approach now, the tattoo gradually fades away under many months of laser treatments tailored to the wavelength of the pigments. Sounds easy. But with disruption, the fading tattoo becomes more like a toxic chemical dump.

Chemists from several laboratories, including the government's National Center for Toxicological Research, have identified low levels of carcinogens in tattoo ink. But the laser removal process, which demolishes the pigment by scorching it with heat, triggers chemical reactions that generate carcinogenic and mutation-inducing breakdown products, which are then absorbed by the body. Recently, German scientists reported that concentrations of toxic molecules from red and yellow pigments increased up to 70-fold after laser irradiation. And the bigger the tattoo, the greater the toxic release. This can only make one wonder whether it's better to let the sleeping paint lie, walled off by the body's own protective devices. Only time and a lot more study will tell.

We know so woefully little about tattoos. The Food and Drug Administration, which goes after cosmetics with a vengeance, does not regulate the tattoo industry. In fact, no one really knows exactly what's in the numerous commercial and homemade inks. But they do contain solvents and metals like lead and mercury and a range of impurities acceptable for computer printers or car paint—but not for human injection.

Allergic reactions and skin infections can occur after tattooing. And though they may be coincidental, skin cancers, including melanomas, have been reported within tattoo sites, bearing very close watching. The FDA warns about the risk of tattoo parlors transmitting viruses like HIV and the cancer-causing hepatitis C. Because of this, blood banks typically ban donations from people who have been tattooed in the previous 12 months. The FDA also warns patients that if they have an MRI scan, their tattoos can swell or burn, presumably related to the metal in some inks.

Stigma. Once mainly a guy thing, tattoos now decorate men and women equally, and increasingly they are a women's health issue. It should be obvious that getting or removing tattoos during pregnancy is not a good idea. And some anesthesiologists have expressed concerns about performing epidurals, used during labor, through those symmetrically designed female lower-back tattoos because of the slim possibility that the needle might carry pigment into the spinal canal. Perhaps not surprisingly, most patients seeking removal are women, prompted by a disproportionate level of psychological distress and even tattoo stigma. Witness the tasteless moniker used to describe those lower-back tattoos: "tramp stamp."

I asked a few of my U.S. News colleagues about their take on women and tattoos. One said there was something trendy if not sexy about them—but maybe not for his fiancée. Another said he'd date a girl with one if it were not too obvious. A third saw only harmless self-expression. I'm with one young reporter who visited a tattoo parlor for a piece she was writing. She's down on tattoos because of the murky risks—and the idea of looking at the deeds of her youth for 80 years.

Credit: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2008/07/25/the-dangerous-art-of-the-tattoo