Love getting tattooed? Doctors say ink, needle may raise risk of HIV, cancers

Love to get tattooed Beware the ink and needle used may raise your risk of getting diseases like Hepatitis B C HIV and even cancers of the liver and blood warned doctors on WednesdayTattoos have become very popular especially among the youth as a form of body art and a means of expressing their thoughts or passionThe most obvious health concerns emanate from the use of possibly infected needles used to draw these tattoos in nonexpert hands the risk of contracting infections like Hepatitis B C or even HIV Suhail Qureshi additional director unit head Medical Oncology Fortis Hospital Shalimar Bagh saidIn a recent study of 11905 individuals by researchers at Lund University in Sweden tattooed individuals were found to have a higher risk of lymphomaThe risk of lymphoma was highest in individuals with less than two years since their first tattooThe risk associated with tattoo exposure seemed to be highest for large Bcell lymphoma and follicular lymphomaThis is because the tattoo ink which may contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon PAH a known carcinogen is injected into the skin The body treats it as a foreign object that should not be there and the immune system gets activated A large part of the ink is transported away from the skin to the lymph nodes where it is deposited Tushar Tayal Consultant Internal Medicine CK Birla Hospital Gurugram told IANSRecently Australias Department of Health also surveyed the composition of tattoo inks and found a mismatch between the labelling and the contentsThey found PAHs in 20 per cent of the samples tested and in 83 per cent of the black inks Other hazardous components found in the inks included heavy metals like mercury barium copper amines and various colourantsThese hazardous chemicals may cause simple ailments like skin problems to the more dangerous skin cancers Suhail saidHe explained that the ink may get absorbed from the dermis outer layer of the skin into the lymphatic system of the body and may increase the risk of some other cancers like liver urinary bladder as well as blood cancers like lymphoma and leukaemiaThe hazardous chemicals in the tattoo ink are primarily responsible for these dangerous ailments and until the time health care authorities strictly regulate the contents of such inks this risk will always remainWhile not all tattoo inks contain these cancercausing chemicals we need to exercise caution while getting a tattoo since in India there are no regulatory frameworks that govern this Suhail saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever