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A new Swedish study found that people with tattoos have a 21% increased risk of developing lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
“It is important to remember that lymphoma is a rare disease and our results apply at a population level,” said Christel Nielsen, a researcher at Lund University who led the study. “The results now need to be validated and further investigated in other studies, and such studies are ongoing,” he added, according to the New York Post. The study, published in eClinicalMedicine, asked 11,905 participants to answer questionnaires about lifestyle factors and to determine if they had tattoos. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (a curable, fast-growing cancer that starts in white blood cells) and follicular lymphoma (a slow-growing, incurable cancer) appeared to have the highest risk associated with tattoo exposure.
“We already knew that when tattoo ink is injected into the skin, the body interprets it as a foreign substance that shouldn’t be there, and the immune system becomes activated. Much of the ink moves from the skin to the lymph nodes, where it becomes lodged,” Nelson explains. Does tattoo size matter? Nelson’s team hypothesized that tattoo size would affect lymphoma risk, but later found that this was not the case.
“One can only speculate that tattoos, no matter how big or small, can trigger low-grade inflammation in the body, which can lead to cancer,” Nelson reasoned. Nelson said his study highlights the importance of monitoring the chemical makeup of tattoo inks. Nearly one-third of adults in the United States have a tattoo, and 22% of them have multiple tattoos. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers tattoo inks cosmetics and pigments coloring additives. The FDA said it has not traditionally regulated color additives in tattoo ink pigments. People who get tattoos at a young age are at higher risk Nelson’s team plans to look for links between tattoos and other cancers, as well as other inflammatory diseases. A study presented last year at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research found a potential association between multiple large tattoos and the risk of blood cancers. The risk is particularly high for people who get tattoos at a young age. “People may want to continue to express their identity through tattoos, so it’s important that we as a society can ensure that tattoos are safe,” Nelson said. “As an individual, it’s good to know that tattoos can affect your health, and if you experience symptoms that you think may be related to your tattoo, you should see a doctor,” he said.
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