This is pretty much expected. The very mechanism of tattoos is that ink particles deposited in the skin are taken up by phagocytes. One of the jobs of phagocytes is to present ingested material to lymphocytes in lymph nodes. Makes sense that we may see ink particles in lymph nodes.
Finding traces of tattoo ink in lymph nodes, means nothing other than the fact that there are traces of tattoo ink in lymph nodes.
If there were actual lymph-related problems associated with tattoos, like certain illnesses that are disproportionately represented amongst tatooed individuals, you'd think that studies would discover it...
Glad they only looked for Titanium Dioxide, as present in everything and anything except for a lot of the more common tattoo inks. Titanium Dioxide is effectively 'white paint' and mixed in with ink as well as to do highlights in white.
A lot of tattoo ink is 'burnt animal bones' and mostly harmless. However, a surprisingly large amount of people in the trade are vegan and therefore only use the 'vegan friendly' ink. So that means nickel shoved into the skin instead of dead animal ash.
Colours, particularly bright colours, do need heavy metals such as cadmium for yellow, cobalt for blue and, depending on who is doing the fearmongering, lead, arsenic, everything up to depleted uranium.
One might imagine that in this age where we have brightly coloured plastics made from petroleum products and friendly to everything from kids to dishwashers that it would be possible to get vegan friendly ink that was not made from toxic heavy metals. But it is not like that at all, to get good colours you do need lots of heavy metals.
Tattoos are far from permanent, yellows will fade to be barely visible within five years even if looked after with sun cream and covered 99% of the time. I would be very interested to see how these inks make it from the skin and on towards the liver over time. I know some people say they are allergic to Titanium Dioxide but that has to be one of the more inert of the inks, what happens to the lead is more interesting.
There could be a flip side though. Some people don't get enough zinc. So what if you could have a 'slow release mechanism' tattoo that gave you the zinc the doctor said you needed?
“No one checks the chemical composition of the colours, but our study shows that maybe they should.”
Not exactly true. Part of the process of choosing the right tattoo artist is making sure they use a quality ink, since this may significantly affect the final work. I agree most people don't really do it, and fewer care about the actual contents of the ink, but good tattoo artists will properly talk to customers about it, as to set the right expectations for colors that fade out quickly such as white or yellow, or change tone over time like old black ink.
Looks like TiO2 is going to get a lot more focus in the decades ahead:
"Possible link found between diabetes and common white pigment"
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180620125907.h...
natural selection
My lymph nodes get to be super rad, too.
whew thank god i decided not to get a tattoo....was about to too.
natural selection. stupid people get tattoos
Tattoo removal will take that right out.
You should almost never make a decision that affects the rest of your life. If you say "marriage", well, NOT getting married to that person might affect the rest of your life more than marrying them ( regret is bigger than marriage ). Therefore marriage would affect the rest of your life less than not marrying them.
Are there any decisions that affect the rest of your life ( by consequence ) that are advisable? Even going into the military only affects 4 years, but tattoos are longer ( assuming you don't remove ).
Kids too, they should only be had if regret would outweigh the kid, in terms of life change.
How many people regret NOT getting a tattoo, vs the many that regret tattoos? If you regret not having a tattoo, you can always get the tat later, but not the other way around.
Tattoos provide a useful function
That if present, they indicate that the wearer is a member of the working class.
This title is severely misleading, the article discusses pigments in tattoo ink, not tattoo ink in general. I am covered in tattoos, none of my tattoos have color.
"but researchers suggest dirty needles aren’t the only risk of the age-old practice"
I have also never seen an artist use a dirty needle, and would never let a dirty needle hit my skin with ink.
As a pathologist who sees tattoo ink in lymph nodes routinely (along with other pigments), it's slightly shocking to me that this got reported as a finding.
There is, however, an interesting suggestion of correlation between certain red pigments, particularly from tattoos made in Asia it seems, that stimulate the immune system to mount a severe epidermolytic reaction. And it can be a delayed reaction. We had one where the dermatologists brought in pictures. It looked like the entire tattoo was being cut out with a cookie cutter, just totally separated from the surrounding skin. Horrible.