Can protect the skin from harmful sun exposure, or do they actually make things worse? This is a concern raised by a team of researchers from Lund University, led by epidemiology lecturer Kristel Nielsen.
“We found that people with tattoos have a 29 percent higher risk of developing melanoma—a serious form of skin cancer often linked to ultraviolet exposure,” said Ms. Nielsen.
Melanoma is the most dangerous and aggressive type of , arising from pigment cells (melanocytes) and has a high tendency to metastasize quickly to lymph nodes and internal organs. Other types of skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma, develop from different skin cells and are generally less aggressive.
Interestingly, in Sweden, one in three adults has a tattoo, highlighting how rapidly body art has become mainstream.
What Did the Scientists Discover?
Until recently, scientists were unsure about the extent to which tattoos are . In trying to answer this question, researchers faced certain challenges. One of the main issues was that most medical records do not indicate whether a person has tattoos. Without this basic information, it’s difficult to determine if a patient’s condition is related to their tattoos or if other factors are at play.
Long-term observation of large groups of people with and without tattoos would require significant time and financial resources. Therefore, the team took a different approach. They began their analysis with individuals who had already been diagnosed with cancer and examined their data from previous years to determine which patients had tattoos.
In the National Cancer Registry, researchers identified individuals aged 20 to 60 who were diagnosed with melanoma in 2017 and those diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma between 2014 and 2017. This included a total of 2,880 cases of melanoma and 2,821 cases of squamous cell carcinoma. For each case, the team selected three individuals of the same age and gender from the Population Registry who had not been diagnosed with skin cancer for comparison.
The scientists then sent questionnaires to all participants, asking about their tattoos (decorative, permanent makeup, and medical), as well as their size, location, and the year the first tattoo was done. This helped establish whether the tattoos were done before or after the cancer developed, as reported by Science Alert.
As previously mentioned, individuals with tattoos had a 29 percent higher risk of developing melanoma compared to those without tattoos. The greatest increase in risk was observed among those who had their tattoos for more than ten years.
Regarding squamous cell carcinoma, the researchers found no link between tattoos and this type of skin cancer. They also found no evidence that large tattoos increase the risk of developing cancer. This was surprising for the team, as larger tattoos contain more ink and, therefore, potentially more harmful substances.
“Our results suggest a possible link between tattoos and melanoma, but one study is never enough to fully prove this connection,” noted Ms. Nielsen.
Photo: Unsplash
