A new study has suggested that having tattoos could be a risk factor for lymphoma.
The study from Lund University in Sweden, published in the medical journal eClinicalMedicine, set out to research the long-term health effects of tattoos, which the authors described as an under-researched area.
“Our results suggest that tattooed individuals have a 21 per cent increased risk of overall lymphoma relative to nontattooed individuals,” the study’s authors said.
The study looked at more than 11,000 people, including about 1400 with lymphoma who answered the relevant questionnaire.
In the group with lymphoma, 21 per cent were tattooed, while 18 per cent were tattooed in the control group without a lymphoma diagnosis.
“After taking into account other relevant factors, such as smoking and age, we found that the risk of developing lymphoma was 21 per cent higher among those who were tattooed,” lead researcher Christel Nielsen said.
“It is important to remember that lymphoma is a rare disease and that our results apply at the group level.”
She said the suggested link needed to be verified and investigated further in other studies.
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Researchers had initially thought that the size of the tattoo on the body could affect the risk of developing lymphoma, but that was not supported by their results.
“We do not yet know why this was the case,” Nielsen said.
“One can only speculate that a tattoo, regardless of size, triggers a low-grade inflammation in the body, which in turn can trigger cancer.
“The picture is thus more complex than we initially thought.”
The researchers will now investigate potential links between tattoos and other types of cancer.
