Tattoos could be a risk of hidden cancer, the study of discovery twins

Your next tattoo could be more risky than it currently supposed, suggests recent research. Scientists have found evidence of a potential link between tattooing ink and a higher risk of certain cancers.

Researchers from the University of South Denmark (SDU) conducted the study, published in January in BMC Public Health. They compared twins, noting that those who obtained tattoos had a significantly higher risk of diagnosis of skin cancer and lymphoma. Additional research is necessary to understand if this connection is causal and the reasons behind, according to the researchers.

Tattoos have become more and more popular. According to a PEW survey in 2023, a third of Americans currently wear a tisterwith 22% by having more than one. Given this, it is important to know the potential long -term effects of tattoos, and researchers say that not enough work has been done to understand if Tattoo Ink could be carcinogen.

To fill this gap, they analyzed data from the Danish twin tattoo cohort (DTTC). The DTTC was created in 2021 by SDU scientists to study pairs of twins on their history of tattooing, with volunteers solicited in the Danin Twin register for a long time, also kept to SDU. This allowed researchers to know a person’s tattoo status and follow if they then developed cancer. They specifically looked for cancer cases in certain parts of the body where the tattoo ink particles are known to deposit, like the skin and the lymphatic nodes.

All in all, the researchers had information on nearly 6,000 adult twins, which they used to carry out two different types of studies that compared the results related to tattooed and not tattooed twins. In both conceptions, twins with tattoos were significantly more likely to develop skin cancer and lymphoma than their counterparts.

The exact risk added associated with tattooing differs depending on the type of cancer, the characteristics of the tattoo and other relevant factors such as age. But the largest associated risk was observed with tattoos larger than the size of a palm – people with these tattoos had a risk two to three times higher of these cancers than people without tattoos. This is the key, because it is a possible sign of a dose-response effect, which would strengthen the case for a real association here.

“We fear that the tattoo ink interact with the surrounding cells can have serious consequences,” wrote the authors of the study.

This type of research alone cannot be used to confirm a cause and effect relationship between tattoos and cancer. But twin studies in general allow scientists to avoid many of the similar research limits (because twins are so genetically and often respectful of the environment, there is less noise in the data to be feared). There have also been at least four other studies in recent years to examine this issue. Three of them studiestwo of which look With us, the residents, suggested a possible link, while a failed To find a relationship.

At the same time, there could still be other explanations. People who obtain tattoos may be more likely to engage in other behaviors related to cancer such as smoking and alcohol consumption. Thus, having a tattoo can simply be an indirect marker of the increase in the risk of cancer, not a cause. Tattoos could also reduce the chances that someone notes his skin cancer early, which could then lead to worse results (in this scenario, tattoos would not cause cancers, but would make them more dangerous).

Another persistent question, assuming that this connection is authentic, is exactly what is behind. It is possible that the tattoo ink can wave the cells of our body in a particular way, causing inflammation or other changes that could feed the formation of cancer. Some research has also revealed that the ingredients found in certain ink colors, such as black or red, are more harmful or allergy induce than others. The researchers have not found clear evidence of a color effect in their study, but do not yet appear that this could be relevant.

In any case, the team claims that more research is necessary to go to the bottom of this potential problem. “Studies that identify the etiological way of cancerogenesis induced by tattoo ink are recommended,” they wrote.