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Study suggests tattoos may be a risk factor for lymphoma
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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A new study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden suggests that tattoos may be a risk factor for developing cancer of the lymphatic system, or lymphoma. The researchers stress the need for more research on the topic.
Our knowledge of the long-term health effects of tattoos is still limited, and there has not been much research in this area. A group of researchers from Lund University looked into the link between tattoos and lymphoma.
"We identified people diagnosed with lymphoma through population registers. We matched these people with a control group of the same sex and age, but without lymphoma. The study participants filled out a questionnaire about lifestyle factors to determine whether they had tattoos," says Christel Nielsen, a researcher at Lund University who led the study.
A total of 11,905 people took part in the study. Of these, 2,938 people were diagnosed with lymphoma between the ages of 20 and 60. Of these, 1,398 responded to the questionnaire, while the number of participants in the control group was 4,193. In the lymphoma group, 21% had tattoos (289 people), and in the control group without a diagnosis of lymphoma, 18% (735 people) had tattoos.
"After controlling for other relevant factors such as smoking and age, we found that the risk of developing lymphoma was 21% higher among those with tattoos. It is important to remember that lymphoma is a rare disease and our results apply at the group level. The results now need to be confirmed and further investigated in other studies, and this work is already underway," adds Christel Nielsen.
One of the hypotheses of Christel Nielsen's research team before the study was that the size of the tattoo would influence the risk of lymphoma. They believed that a full-body tattoo might be associated with a higher risk of cancer compared to a small butterfly on the shoulder, for example. Surprisingly, it turned out that the area of the tattooed body surface did not matter.
"We don't yet know why this is so. We can only speculate that a tattoo, regardless of size, causes low-level inflammation in the body, which in turn can trigger cancer. The picture is more complex than we initially thought."
Most people get their first tattoo at a young age, meaning they are exposed to tattoo ink for most of their lives. However, research has only scratched the surface of the long-term health effects of tattoos.
"We already know that when tattoo ink is injected into the skin, the body interprets it as something foreign and activates the immune system. Most of the ink is transported from the skin to the lymph nodes, where it is deposited," explains Christel Nielsen.
The research team intends to continue their research to find out if there is a link between tattoos and other types of cancer. They also want to conduct more studies on other inflammatory diseases to see if there is a link with tattoos.
"People will likely want to continue to express their individuality through tattoos, and so it is important that society can ensure their safety. It is good for everyone to know that tattoos can affect your health and that you should contact your doctor if you notice symptoms that you think may be related to your tattoo," concludes Christel Nielsen.
The results of the study were published in the journal The Lancet.