Tattoos increase the risk of malignant lymphoma by 21%

A study published in eClinicalMedicine found that tattoos are associated with an increased risk of developing malignant lymphomas. Specifically, the results show that people with tattoos have a 21% higher risk than those who don’t.

Author of the book “Tattoos as a Risk Factor for Malignant Lymphomas: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.” Christel Nielsennotes that tattoo inks contain carcinogenic chemicals such as primary aromatic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals.

“The process of getting a tattoo triggers an immune response that causes the tattoo ink to move away from the injection site. Deposition of tattoo pigment in lymph nodes has been confirmed, but long-term health consequences remain unknown,” the report said.

The risk decreases with increasing duration of intermediate exposure.

The study, which included 11,905 people, used data from a Swedish national body with full population coverage. Impact was assessed using a structured questionnaire administered by Statistics Sweden, the Swedish body responsible for official statistics in 2021.

“People with tattoos had a higher adjusted risk of developing lymphoma overall. The risk of lymphoma was higher in people who had less than two years between their first tattoo and the index year,” the analysis said.

Likewise, the risk was found to decrease with the duration of intermediate exposure, from about three to ten years, but increased again in people who had their first tattoo.

Another finding is that there is no evidence of a greater risk when tattoos are over a larger surface area of ​​the body. Likewise, the risk is higher for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and follicular type.

The average age at which they were diagnosed was between 51 and 57 years, with the exception of Hodgkin’s disease, which included young people aged 36 years and older.

Research has attributed this condition and tattoos to coincidence.

Author NielsenAssociate Professor at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Lund University, acknowledges that due to the lack of properly designed epidemiological studies, there is no scientific basis to reliably assess this association.

“To our knowledge, the only published epidemiological study of the effects of tattoos and lymphoma is the work of Warner et al, but their studies were likely underpowered due to the small number of tattooed participants,” the study said.

For this reason, the professor claims that her study is the first to provide information about a possible link between tattoos and lymphomas, using a population-based study design and a large sample.

However, in her opinion, a cause-and-effect relationship cannot be established with a single epidemiological study, so they believe that more epidemiological studies are needed.