2023-06-12 04:08:02
More than one in five French people has already had a tattoo in 2018, a proportion which rises to nearly one in three young people under the age of 35, according to an Ifop survey conducted in 2018. In addition, there are an estimated 15,000 registered tattoo artists in the country – a number that is constantly growing.
“This professionalization has considerably reduced, in certified professional salons, the risk of infection – streptococcus or staphylococcus – due to poorly sterilized equipment”, observes Dr Laurent Misery, head of the dermatology department of the University Hospital of Brest. But what regarding the inks used which, depending on the color desired, contain heavy metals (aluminum, cobalt, cadmium, copper, iron, manganese, lead, titanium, etc.) and compounds (disubstituted benzenes, ethanol, etc.) potentially toxic to the organs?
“Despite the possible actual presence of potentially carcinogenic or procarcinogenic products, the review of the literature shows that the number of skin cancers that appear in tattoos is low, with no direct causality demonstrated”, indicates the High Council for Public Health in a notice dated December 15, 2020. This does not mean that the risk of developing cancer is not increased in the tattooed population compared to those who are not. “That’s precisely what needs to be assessed,” says Dr. Misery.
Two epidemiological studies will be launched in this direction, in the coming months, in France and Germany. Conducted on 120,000 people, including 30,000 tattooed, they will aim to determine whether or not wearing a small flower on the shoulder or a comic strip on one’s back increases the risk of lymphoma or cancer of the kidneys, bladder or liver, exposes Milena Foerster, epidemiologist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the WHO, in a scientific article.
Researchers have already shown that the insoluble pigments of the inks do not remain confined in the dermis at the level of the tattoo, but that they are transported by the blood and the lymphatic vessels to the ganglia, wherewhere they are found in the form of nanoparticles. It is therefore likely that they can migrate “into other organs”, suggests Milena Foerster. With what effects, in the long term? Highly carcinogenic when ingested or inhaled, titanium dioxide, for example, is prohibited in the diet. But what regarding injected under the skin and mixed with other substances? We do not know anything !
Allergies, fertility, diagnostic delays…
The French Society of Dermatology does not advise once morest tattooing, the potential dangers of which, in the state of knowledge, are “disproportionate to those incurred in the event of repeated exposure to the sun”, notes Dr Misery. As for so-called vegetable or organic tattoos, “they are of no interest. Worse: they contain more allergenic substances,” he says.
“Three of my patients have declared carcinomas in the immediate vicinity of tattooed areas”, emits, for his part, Dr Marc Perrussel, dermatologist attached to the CHU Pontchaillou in Rennes, reluctant to tattoo – a fortiori if it is extended – “for at least four reasons. The first is that this break in the skin is likely to let in a germ. The second is that there is a non-negligible risk, beyond a normal inflammatory reaction, of having an eczema-type allergy, either immediately or later, even one or two years following having tattooed: there is then no other way than to remove the tattoo with a laser, an intervention which, in turn, can release cobalt, for example, in the body”, illustrates the practitioner. Another disadvantage: making up the skin on a large surface “interferes with the skin examination and can thus delay the detection of a melanoma or a carcinoma”. Finally, there is this question of the long-term toxicity of the injected products and their possible carcinogenic effects, genetic mutation or reduced fertility.
New inks: the cure worse than the disease?
Doctors, like the National Union of Tattoo Artists (Snat), underline the importance of using a certified tattoo artist, declared to the ARS (Regional Health Agency) and having a Hygiene and Sanitation certificate. Knowing that in 2022, the European Union has tightened the legislation targeting the inks used. It banned 27 pigments and limited the quantities used of 4,000 chemical components. But the new regulations arouse “strong reactions” within the profession, explains Karine Grenouille, secretary of the Snat. In question: the substitute inks, sold “compliant”, including “the quality of the healing, the rendering of certain colors and the hold over time might require touch-ups in a more systematic way than before”.
Consequence, deplores the medical profession: banned dyes, reputed to be more effective, continue to circulate on the internet, clandestinely and… without control.
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