Tattooing may be associated with complications if the immune system is weak
Getting a tattoo may have some unexpected complications if your immune system isn’t up to scratch.
In an article in the journal BMJ Case Reports, doctors described a case of a woman whose chronic pain was found to be linked with the tattoo she got some time ago.
Getting a tattoo is becoming increasingly popular around the world. However patients with compromised immune systems should be aware of the potential risks associated with this type of decorative body art.
The warning comes after a patient was evaluated for chronic pain in her left hip, knee and thigh few months after she had been tattooed.
She had been taking immunosuppressive drugs (drugs to dampen down her immune system) for several years after receiving a double lung transplant in 2009 to prevent rejection.
The right leg of the woman had been tattooed several years earlier with no side effects.
The woman experienced mild skin irritation after she had a second tattoo on her left thigh, which is not unusual as tattooing has been associated with various complications, ranging from mild skin irritation to systemic infection. But 9 days later, she developed pain in her left knee and thigh and her symptoms were so severe that she needed strong painkillers.
The woman continued to have pain in her left knee and thigh even after 10 months and was then reviewed in a rheumatology clinic. She was tested for various conditions, the results of which all came back negative.
“…the timing of onset and the location of the symptoms correlated well with the tattoo application…”
A biopsy of her left thigh muscle was done which revealed that she had inflammatory myopathy – chronic muscle inflammation that is often accompanied by muscle weakness and pain.
The cause of this inflammatory myopathy isn’t known in many cases and it may arise spontaneously. But in this case the doctors believe that it is likely to have been linked to the tattoo process itself. The effects may have been compounded by a compromised immune system.
“While we acknowledge that there is no evidence to definitely prove the causative effect, the timing of onset and the location of the symptoms correlated well with the tattoo application and there were no other identifiable factors to cause the pathology,” the authors wrote.
The woman was given physiotherapy to strengthen her thigh muscles, and one year after the start of her symptoms, she began to improve. After three years, she was pain free.
Although it isn’t clear how the tattooing process might have contributed to the woman’s symptoms, but it is well known that the type of ink or colourant used in tattoos can cause a reaction, said the authors.
