Tattoos Affect Your Immune System in Ways We're Only Beginning to Understand
Once tattoo ink enters the body, it does not stay put. Beneath the skin, tattoo pigments interact with the immune system in ways scientists are only just beginning to understand.
Tattoos are generally considered safe, but growing scientific evidence suggests tattoo inks are not biologically inert. The key question is no longer whether tattoos introduce foreign substances into the body, but how toxic those substances might be and what that means for long-term health.
https://www.sciencealert.com/tattoos-affect-your-immune-system-in-ways-were-only-beginning-to-understandOpen linkView original on fedia.io
Oh hey look another AI article loosely based on that study about tattoos on mice. Fuck off
I’ve kind of wondered this myself; anecdotally, of course.
Back in 2015, I got a 3/4 sleeve done with lots of colors (blue, black, red, yellow, and mixes of other colors). Not long after, I coincidentally also started suffering from fatigue, malaise, and other health issues. I love my tattoos, but I wonder (especially now) if it were a huge mistake given everything I’ve struggled with these past 10 years.
Have you seen a doctor? I have a long term illness that was only recently exposed.
I have. A few actually. The most that came from it was learning I had celiac disease. Other than that, all teats have come back normal. It sucks. 🤷♂️
Well that is kind of a big deal lol. You may already know all this but celiac causes malnutrition as well as direct symptoms.
Iron deficiency from gut malabsorption can cause pretty significant fatigue, malaise, mood issues, and other problems. The criteria for determining what is considered iron deficiency have recently changed as well so that a LOT more people are considered deficient compared to before, and not all docs are up to date yet. Assuming you're an otherwise healthy person, you'd probably want to have a ferritin (iron stores) of at least 50 ng/mL but ideally around 100 ng/mL if you're symptomatic. There are several other vitamins that are commonly deficient in celiac as well.
Naa man... it's the tattoos lol
This article needs to die, it was a shit study and on mice no less.
tbf there does seem to be some immune system weirdness with tattoos and if you're already in a higher than normal inflammatory state because you have an untreated autoimmune disease like celiac, maybe it could make you feel like shit at least in the short term. idk
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26940693/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41289395/
%100 can see that, but these articles keep coming up like they've nailed down that people with tattoos are more sick than people without. Which is a correlation doesn't equate cause....and everyone is running with it now.
I want a tattoo but paused my decision after learning that getting a tattoo causes inflammation and that this has a significant chance of causing flare ups in people with psoriasis. I have psoriasis. I also have other health conditions and should avoid inflammatory triggers in general. Sucks. I only want a very small tattoo, though, so we'll see. Maybe someday.
Thank god.
I have several tattoos in various areas. Some for the early 90s some from 2016. The newer ones occasionally have a burning sensation. Not often, maybe 2 or 3 times a year, just randomly. Makes me wonder if my immune system is attacking it once in a while
Every now and then the line work on mine feels raised very slightly, like whispering in braile.
This is the best poetry of 2026
Voldemort?
It could also be a different formulation used in the ink.
I get that same thing on one of my tats, I think I got it around the same time as well, it's so weird.
These are some of the stupidest choices in tattoo and location I have ever seen in my life. I truly hope this is AI 🤣
It does feel very AI. They link a bunch of words for definitions but don't cite any papers for their facts. I hope this isn't the new norm. Even it's the university of Westminster
The citation: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07482337221100870
I'm solely talking about the Heading Photo, not the contents.
It links to the article at the bottom of the page.
Rather unsurprising if you think of tattoo ink as a foreign substance that your body doesn't recognise as part of itself. The body will respond with inflammation, like with everything else.
What is this Facebook now?
I hope it's in a good way.
Read the article.
TL;DR No, not in a good way.If it were in a good way, the title would be different. That’s why I’m refusing to read it.
I biopsy a lot of lymph nodes. I like it when people have tattoos because they lymph nodes turn black from the dark ink and I know I got a good sample.