Scientists find a tattoo artist -cancer link – but that’s not what you expect

You may have recently heard that tattoos can potentially increase your risk of skin cancer. Recent research could, however, complicate this story, which suggests that tattoos are not as harmful to our skin as it supposed.

Scientists from the University of Utah led the study, published last month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Unlike their expectations, they found that people who had several tattoos had an associated risk of lower melanoma. That said, the results do not provide conclusive evidence that tattoos can prevent skin cancer, say the researchers.

“A more in-depth investigation is justified to clarify these relationships,” they wrote.

An unexpected discovery

Several recent studies have indicated that tattoos may have a single cancer risk. In this March, for example, a study of twins living in Denmark revealed that people with a tattoo had a greater probability of being diagnosed with skin cancer (and lymphoma) than their unused brothers and sisters.

Tattoo ink may contain potential carcinogens, such as certain metals, and certain researchers have hypothesized that ink can wave cells in our body in a harmful way, causing inflammation or other changes that feed the formation of cancer. According to this logic, people with significant or multiple tattoos should have a greater risk of skin cancer. And indeed, the Danish study found that people with a greater tattoo had a higher risk than the others.

With the help of data in the cancer register, the researchers behind the new study tried to review as many UTAH residents as possible that had been diagnosed with melanoma between January 2020 and June 2021, conducting the investigations by telephone. All in all, they obtained answers in 1,167 cases of melanoma. They then compared these cases to the aged controls in age, ethnicity and other factors (these data were collected from a representative survey of UTAH residents regularly conducted by the State Health Department).

As with the previous Danish study, the researchers expected that the more someone of tattooing had, the more their chances of having skin cancer would be high. But to their surprise, they found the opposite.

People with two or more tattoos had an associated risk lower than both invasive and localized (also called on site) Melanoma, the results have shown. The weaker risk that has been observed in people who had four or more tattoos and in people with three or more tattoos.

What to think of your tattoos

Researchers are certainly not ready to declare that tattoos will protect people from skin cancer for the moment.

In their article, they argue that the risk observed lower in people with several tattoos is probably a sign of “unbeatable confusion” – which may not have succeeded in controlling other significant risk factors that could differ between people who get a lot of tattooing compared to people who do not. People who get several tattoos can be more vigilant in their skin care in general, for example, and choose to wear a sunscreen or stay more often outside the sun.

The researchers also point out that they have still observed a small increased risk of skin cancer associated with a single tattoo, more blurring the implications of their work.

“This is not a black and white case to” get more tattoos, and you could reduce your risk of melanoma, “said the main study author Rachel McCartyA former doctoral student at the Huntsman Cancer Institute of the University of Utah, in a declaration from the Institute. “Instead, we need to do more research to understand what we see and if this reduced risk is simply due to behavioral or physical factors, or if there could be beneficial immune responses associated with tattooing that lower the risk of melanoma.”

It should be noted that at least another recent study has failed to find a link between potentially relevant cancers such as lymphoma and tattooing. So, at least for the moment, the jury is still on the question of whether people should be concerned with their tattoos and to what extent.