Do tattoos increase my risk of skin cancer?
Some ink components, such as mercury or carbon black, are suspected cancer-causing agents when used in other applications. However, there’s no evidence skin cancers are more likely in tattooed skin.
Tattoos make newly-developed skin cancers more difficult to detect. Besides making the lesion more difficult to spot in the first place, the colours of the tattoo interfere with your doctor’s assessment of the colours in the lesion, which can be an important sign of cancer.
So it’s a good idea to get familiar with the moles and freckles on a patch of skin before you’re inked, and check them yourself once a month for changes.
Red tattoos seem to be more prone to large but benign (non-cancerous) skin tumours called keratoacanthomas. These appear within a few months of tattooing, and often grow rapidly but then heal by themselves.
However, they can be difficult to distinguish from squamous cell carcinomas (a type of skin cancer). They can also damage underlying structures, such as nerves and muscles. So they often need to be removed anyway.
Can sunlight fade my tattoo?
As tattoos age, they can fade a bit as some of the loose ink particles filter deeper into the dermis. Sun exposure can also degrade ink particles.
There’s limited research on this in human skin. After all, most people don’t want to fade their tattoos for science. So most of what we know is from research in mice.
However, modern tattoo inks give you a strong colour. So in practice, you might not notice any fading for years.
Does tattooed skin sweat differently to un-inked skin?
This is an important question, because sweating is a major way our body avoids overheating in the summer. If you’ve got a full sleeve or your whole back is your canvas, that’s a significant amount of skin.
Since tattooing punctures the skin repeatedly, sweat glands in the dermis may be damaged.
But the research on tattoos’ impact on sweating is mixed and depends on what you are doing at the time.
In one study, researchers used a heatable suit to increase study participants’ internal body temperature by 1°C. Tattooed areas produced about 15% less sweat. It’s not clear if this is enough to increase the risk of heat stress.
However, when other researchers looked at sweating induced by exercise there was no effect in the volume of sweat between tattooed and un-tattooed skin.
Longer-term risks
When performed under the clean conditions of a licenced tattoo parlour, tattooing is relatively safe.
But long term, some people develop allergic reactions to certain colours due to the different compounds in each, most commonly red dyes. This can cause lumps, scales, scarring or other visible changes.
So, what’s the most common long-term side effect of tattoos? Tattoo regret and wanting to have them removed.
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons licence. Read theoriginal article.
