Can Tattoos Increase Your Cancer Risk?
A new study suggesting that having a tattoo may increase your risk of developing cancer. However, the results may not be so straightforward.
In the Swedish study recently published in eClinicalMedicine, researchers investigated a potential link between tattoos and lymphoma. The study involved nearly 12,000 participants. Researchers identified the participants diagnosed with lymphoma between 2007 and 2017 (almost 3,000 people) from population registries and compared them to a control group of the same size, age and gender mix who didn't have cancer. Interestingly, even after accounting for established cancer risk factors like age and smoking, people with tattoos showed a 21% increased risk of lymphoma. However, Celeste Bello, MD, a medical oncologist in the Malignant Hematology Department at Moffitt Cancer Center, says it is important to understand that this finding is just an association, not a confirmed cause-and-effect link.
Celeste Bello, MD
“An association simply means two things tend to occur together. In this case, tattoos and a higher cancer risk co-existed. But it doesn't prove tattoos directly cause cancer. There could be other factors influencing both,” Bello said. “For example, maybe people with tattoos share other lifestyle habits that raise their cancer risk, or other unmeasured variables are at play. This is why further studies are necessary to explore the nature of this association.”
While a clear link hasn't been established, some concerns exist regarding tattoos and cancer. Additional studies have also studied how tattoo pigments can travel to a person’s lymph nodes.
Lymphoma is a cancer that attacks the lymphatic system, an important part of your body’s immune system. Normally, it fights germs, but in lymphoma, white blood cells turn abnormal and multiply uncontrollably, accumulating in lymph nodes and other organs and causing them to swell. Known risk factors include aging, a weakened immune system, certain infections such as HIV/AIDS and Epstein Barr and exposure to certain chemicals or secondhand smoke.
