The Torah rules in Leviticus 19:28 that permanent tattooing on the body violates Jewish law, “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.” In addition, the Rambam (Maimonides) saw the origin of this prohibition as an act of idolatry, arguing that it was a pagan custom.
Perhaps the great Jewish commentator on the Torah knew something that scientists in Sweden now suspect. They have just published a study on the subject in the journal E-Clinical Medicine under the title, “Tattoos as a risk factor for malignant lymphoma: A population-based case-control study.”
Lund University’s Christel Nielsen, Mats Jerkeman, and Anna Saxne Jöud wrote that the popularity of tattoos has increased dramatically over the last few decades. Tattoo ink often contains carcinogenic chemicals, including primary aromatic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals.
Under-researched area
Several European studies reported a prevalence above 20% of tattoos, and the US prevalence is estimated at 30%.
“Most people get their first tattoo at a young age, which implies exposure to some chemical constituents of tattoo ink over almost the entire life course. Yet, research has only begun to scratch the surface of understanding the long-term health effects of tattoos,” Lund University’s researchers wrote in the essay.
“Our knowledge regarding the long-term health effects of tattoos has been poor, and there is not a lot of research within this area.
“To our knowledge, this is the first epidemiologic study to investigate the association between tattoo exposure and overall malignant lymphoma as well as lymphoma subtypes, using a population-based case-control design and a large sample size,” they continued.
“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 team stated.
“The tattooing process invokes an immunologic response that causes translocation of tattoo ink from the injection site. Deposition of tattoo pigment in lymph nodes has been confirmed but the long-term health effects remain unexplored. We used Swedish National Authority registers with full population coverage to investigate the association between tattoo exposure and overall malignant lymphoma as well as lymphoma subtypes,” the researchers explained.
They carried out a case-control study in which they identified all cases of malignant lymphoma diagnosed between 2007 and 2017 in people aged 20 to 60 years old. Further, three random age and gender-matched controls per case were sampled from the total population.
The risk associated with tattoo exposure seemed to be the highest for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma. “Our findings suggested that tattoo exposure was associated with an increased risk of malignant lymphoma, but more epidemiologic research is urgently needed to establish causality,” they wrote.
“We already know that when the tattoo ink is injected into the skin, the body interprets this as something foreign that should not be there, and the immune system is activated. A large part of the ink is transported away from the skin to the lymph nodes, where it is deposited,” said Nielsen.
The research group will now proceed with studies to determine whether there is any association between tattoos and other types of cancer as well. They also want to do further research on other inflammatory diseases to see if there is a link to tattoos in those cases.
“If people want to continue to express their identity through tattoos, it is very important that we as a society can make sure that they are safe. For the individual, it is good to know that tattoos can affect your health and that you should turn to your healthcare provider if you experience symptoms that you believe could be related to your tattoo,” they concluded.