There are those who say that tattoos and body piercings involve a health risk – duh!? Obviously infections can set in any time you cut or pierce your skin. Is there really anyone who didn’t get that?
What I didn’t think of too much though is that there are other risks to your health. You can catch diseases like HIV, hepatitis, or bacterial infections from dirty needles. You can also get skin cancer, psoriasis, toxic shock syndrome or even, supposedly, behavioural changes. (I’m not sure at all about that last one!) and the toxic shock one really surprised me.
I guess I hadn’t ever thought much about it, but state and local authorities are responsible for overseeing the practice of tattooing, the ink itself, and the ink colorings or pigments used in tattoos and so they are subject to FDA regulation along with cosmetics.
Some people are allergic to the ingredients in the ink. (I had never thought of that – but wow! what a pain that could prove to be!) To combat this many tattoo artists are using organic ingredients which have lowered the allergic responses.
Check this out: Some poeple develop swelling or burning at the tattoo site when undergoing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) because the iron oxide in tattoo pigments cause this.
Some of the pigment migrates from the tattoo site to the body’s lymph nodes.
Get this – the FDA, which should be regulating, has no systematic studies in place concerning tattoo inks. Some tattoos fade over time, some fade when exposed to sunlight, and laser light is supposed to remove it. But what happens to the ink?
The FDA has not officially approved ANY (read that again if you missed it), they have not approved ANY tattoo inks for injection into the skin. Many ink pigments that are used are industrial strength colors suitable for printers’ ink or automobile paint!
Whew! That’s a lot more than I think I wanted to know!
hmm… informative.