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Tattoos: Risks and precautions to know first
Find out what risks tattoos pose, ways to protect yourself and what to do if you no longer want the body art.
By Mayo Clinic staffA tattoo may take only a few hours to acquire, but invest plenty of thought and research before getting one. If you first take steps to protect yourself from possible risks, what seems like a cool idea now is less likely to turn into a source of regret later.
How tattoos are done
A tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on your skin with pigments inserted through pricks into the skin's top layer. During the procedure, a needle that's connected to a small machine with tubes containing dye pierces the skin repeatedly — an action that resembles that of a sewing machine. With every puncture, the needle inserts tiny ink droplets. The process, which may last up to several hours for a large tattoo, causes a small amount of bleeding and minor to potentially significant pain.
Risks of tattoos
Given the popularity of tattoos, complications are relatively uncommon. However, because a tattoo breaches your skin — your body's main protective barrier — skin infections and other skin reactions are possible.
Tattoo inks are classified as cosmetics, so they aren't regulated or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The pigments and dyes used in tattoo inks aren't approved for injection under the skin. Long-term effects of these are unknown.
Specific risks of tattoos include:
- Blood-borne diseases. If the equipment used to create your tattoo is contaminated with the blood of an infected person, you can contract a number of serious blood-borne diseases. These include hepatitis C, hepatitis B, tetanus, tuberculosis and HIV — the virus that causes AIDS.
- Skin disorders. Your body may form bumps called granulomas around tattoo ink, especially if your tattoo includes red ink. Tattooing can also cause areas of raised, excessive scarring (keloids), if you're prone to them.
- Skin infections. Tattoos can lead to local bacterial infections. Typical signs and symptoms of an infection include redness, warmth, swelling and a pus-like drainage. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked clusters of potentially serious antibiotic-resistant skin infections to unlicensed tattoo artists who don't follow proper infection-control procedures. Some antibiotic-resistant skin infections can lead to pneumonia, blood infections and a painful, flesh-destroying condition called necrotizing fasciitis.
- Allergic reactions. Tattoo dyes, particularly red dye, can cause allergic skin reactions, resulting in an itchy rash at the tattoo site. This may occur even years after you get the tattoo.
- MRI complications. Rarely, tattoos or permanent makeup may cause swelling or burning in the affected areas during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams. In some cases — such as when a person with permanent eyeliner has an MRI of the eye — tattoo pigments may interfere with the quality of the image.
Medications may be necessary if you develop an allergic reaction, infection or other skin disorder. In some cases, permanent tattoo removal is required to resolve the complication.
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