Can tattoos cause cancer?

  

Tattoos have become more popular than before .Call it cool or hip or whatever, the younger generation is getting more & more inked.Like for any procedure , one needs to look before taking a leap .
The well known risks of tattooing apart from the pain & cost of the process are Infections (like Hepatitis B/C , HIV, Staphylococcal infection) ,Allergy (to the dyes - like  redness, swelling ,itching)  & Scarring (after  the infection heals) .
Now in a new study , researchers from Lund University ,Sweden  have identified one more possible risk of tattoos- a type of cancer and it is not of the skin but of lymph nodes(Lymphoma) . Even after taking into account other relevant factors, such as smoking and age, they found that the risk of developing lymphoma was 21 percent higher among those who were tattooed. This does NOT  prove that tattoos cause cancer but there is some association of tattoos & cancer. The researchers suggest to do more large scale studies to look for causality. Interestingly, there was no evidence of increasing risk with a larger area of total tattooed body surface.  They found the risk remains same for small tattoos less than palm size or larger size .
Why does this happen ?
The lymph nodes are the primary site of fighting any invading foreign organism ( like bacteria/virus etc)  or chemical .Tattoo ink often contains carcinogenic chemicals, e.g., primary aromatic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons & metals. When the ink is injected into the upper layer of skin ( called the dermis ) , the immune cells in the skin take these chemicals & then transport it to the nearby lymph nodes where further changes take place and many years later result in cancer . 

Bottom line : Think before you ink !