Can tattoos cause cancer?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched an investigation after new research turned up troubling findings about toxic chemicals in tattoo ink.

I have never understood why anyone would have their bodies covered in tattoos because, unlike a fine wine, I simply don’t believe they age well.

However, recently published studies that have found that the inks contain a host of dodgy substances, including some phthalates, metals, and hydrocarbons that are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.

One chemical commonly used to make black tattoo ink called benzo(a)pyrene is known to be a potent carcinogen that causes skin cancer in animal tests.

Particular concern surrounds the use of black tattoo inks that are often made from soot containing products of combustion called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

The PAHs in the ink compound is identified in an “Environmental Protection Agency” toxicity report as ‘among the most potent and well-documented skin carcinogens’ (AFA). Furthermore, it has been suggested, coloured inks often contain lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, titanium and other heavy metals that may trigger allergies or diseases (AFA).[1]

US researchers say in the wake of a study they found a link between body art and Hepatitis C, the leading cause of liver cancer.

According to a study, which appeared in the Journal Hepatology, people with the blood borne hepatitis C virus, were almost four times more likely to report having a tattoo, even when other major risk factors were taken into account.[2]

Arguably, “Tattooing in and of itself may pose a risk for this disease that can lay dormant for many, many years,” said study co-author Fritz Francois of New York University Langone Medical Centre, although he warned that the study could not produce a direct cause and effect.

Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver cancer and the most common reason for liver transplants in the U.S. Some 70% of people infected will develop chronic liver disease, and up to 5% will die from cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Furthermore, researchers asked almost 2,000 people about their tattoos and hepatitis status, among other questions, at outpatient clinics at three New York area hospitals between 2004 and 2006.

They found that 34% of people with hepatitis C had a tattoo, compared to 12% of people without the infection. After accounting for other risk factors, the difference between people with and without hepatitis was even greater, with four times as many tattoos in the infected group than for uninfected people.

“This is not a big surprise to me,” said John Levey, clinical chief of gastroenterology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Earlier studies had found a link, but they were small and had not taken other risk factors into account as well as the new study did.

As such, the American FDA is applying its investigative microscope to the issue because of hepatitis C transmission. Tattoos are associated with liver cancer.

Think before you ink

You might read this and think that you’re better off undergoing laser tattoo removal.

Unfortunately, while the tattoo might be erased by the treatment, blasting away that pigment releases it into the body a second time.