Warning about the danger of tattoos

A woman experienced pain for three years after getting a tattoo on her thigh.

As the doctor warned, tattooing in the case of a weakened immune system in a person can put him at risk of complications. Fear arose after a woman with cystic fibrosis and a lung transplant caused hip and knee pain by applying body art to her leg.

Doctors say those taking immunosuppressants should consider risk when considering body art. These drugs are often prescribed after organ transplants or to treat autoimmune conditions such as Crohn’s disease, lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis. Others with a weak immune system include patients with long-term chronic conditions such as diabetes.

“We know that the risk of infection in these people is higher, so if you are one of them, before the planned procedure, whether it is piercing or tattooing, consult a doctor and make sure that the specialists performing the procedure are sufficiently qualified, in its sterility and safety,” said William Wilson. co-author of the report, Specialist Registrar in Traumatology and Orthopedics at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

In BMJ Case Reports, Wilson and his colleagues describe the case of a 31-year-old woman being sent to a clinic in Glasgow, 10 months after getting the big Nightmare Before Christmas tattoo on her thigh. Her knee was swollen, her leg with a tattoo hurt and prevented her from sleeping..

“It was really in the front of the thigh, in the quads, and it went down to the knee, causing weakness,” Wilson said..

Despite the fact that the woman already had a tattoo on her other leg, which was done several years ago and did not cause complications at that time, in this case the pain came a little more than a week after the tattoo and had to be relieved with synthetic opioid tramadol, paracetamol and pain reliever neppam. In addition, she took immunosuppressants to control transplanted lungs and insulin for diabetes associated with cystic fibrosis..

Nothing special was noticed on blood tests and on x-rays, and tests for fluid from the knee showed no signs of infection with bacteria or fungus. However, the MRI scan showed that one of the muscles in the thigh was inflamed. Her biopsy also found no signs of infection in her, but confirmed the fact of inflammation..

“We cannot fully prove that the tattoo was the cause of the complication, but our arguments are based on the fact that, firstly, the symptoms made themselves felt a week after the tattoo, and secondly, the inflammation center is located immediately below it, so this relationship excluded we have all other versions that could lead to complications ”- said Wilson.

“In most cases, no one knows the cause of muscle inflammation. Negative consequences can be caused by a bacterium that gets there, a reaction to a toxin or possibly ink, ”he added..

The woman underwent physical therapy, a year after the tattoo, the situation began to improve, and three years later, as the doctors noticed, the pain no longer bothered her.

The staff recommend raising with patients the question of the possible risk of tattoos and considering their impact when diagnosing the condition, noting that although the case with this woman is the only one recorded of this kind in this practice, it may not be the last..

“This can be very rare and due to insufficient diagnosis of patients with the same symptoms and tattoos,” they write..

Prepared by: doryphore (Kurbsky Igor Dmitrievich)