Tattoo inks can cause serious illness
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The outbreak of a rare skin bacterial infection in northern New York in 2011 that the spoiled ink vapor caused, was the first alarm bell reminding that tattooing is dangerous and almost uncontrollable.
Fans of art have become victims of the bacterium Mycobacterium haemophilum, which belongs to the family of bacteria that cause leprosy and tuberculosis.
To understand where and what this infection is all about, scientists spent a month. If the treatment is selected correctly, it will still have to wait for many months to recover.
In addition to the incidents in New York, the specialists found cases of infection in other cities - Iowa, Colorado and Washington.
Microbacteria cause both a small rash and a more dangerous form of the disease, down to severe abscesses requiring surgical intervention.
Experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, are calling for toughening control over the rules that regulate the application of tattoos to the human body.
In addition, experts intend to check the technology of production of ink for tattoos in the factories where they are made.
"We believe that tattoos can be very dangerous and cause great harm to a person, because there is still no law that would standardize the composition of ink," the scientists say. - In medical practice, there were even such cases when people died after they decorated their bodies with drawings. "
According to experts, the usual tap water, which is diluted with ink, could become the cause of contamination of ink, and subsequently of a person.
According to statistics, every year Americans spend about $ 1.65 billion on tattooing the body. Twenty-one thousand tattoo parlors are opened in fifty states, therefore drawing of drawings is not a problem, only jeopardizes the health of the amateur.
The average cost of a small tattoo is $ 45.
According to polls, 29% of US residents believe that tattoos give them a spirit of rebellion, 31% confessed that they want to look sexy and 5% decorate their body in order to show their content, inner fullness and intellect.