Scientists find a link to tattoos – nothing you expect

You may have recently heard that tattoos can raise the risk of skin cancer. However, modern research may complicate this narration, indicating that tattoos are not harmful to our skin as supposed.

The Utah University scientists led the study, Published Last month in the National Cancer Institute magazine. Unlike their expectations, they found that people with multiple tattoos had already had a lower risk of skin cancer. However, the results do not provide conclusive evidence that tattoos can prevent skin cancer, the researchers warn.

“There is a justification for more investigation to clarify these relationships,” they wrote.

An unexpected discovery

Several recent studies have indicated that tattoos can pose a unique risk of cancer. In March only, for example, a twin study living in Denmark Find Those with tattoos had greater possibilities in diagnosing skin cancer (lymphatic tumor) of their unrelated siblings.

It can contain tattoo ink Possible cancerLike some minerals, some researchers speculate that ink can raise the cells of the body in harmful ways, causing inflammation or other changes in the formation of cancer. Through this logic, people with large or multiple tattoos should have a greater risk of skin cancer. Indeed, the Danish study found that people with a greater tattoo have a greater risk than others.

With the help of cancer record data, researchers behind the new study tried to scan the largest possible number of Utah states who were diagnosed with skin cancer between January 2020 and June 2021, and conducting surveys over the phone. They all told that they had received responses from 1,167 skin cancer cases. Then they compared these cases to identical controls in age and race and other factors (these data were collected from a representative study of the Utah residents that are carried out regularly by the Ministry of Governmental Health).

As with the previous Danish study, the researchers expected that the more the number of tattoos that a person had, the higher the risk of skin cancer. But for their great amazement, they found otherwise.

People with two or more tattoos had a lower risk associated with both gas and translated (also called site(Skin cancer, showed the results. The less clear risks were seen in people with four or more tattoos and people with three or more tattoos or more.

What do you think about your tattoo?

Certainly, researchers are not ready to announce that tattoos will keep people safe from skin cancer so far.

In their paper, they argue that the low risks allocated in people with multiple tattoos are likely to be a sign of “unacceptable confusion” – which may fail to control other important risk factors that may vary among people who get a tattoo compared to people who do not do it. People who get many tattoos may be more vigilant about skin care in general, for example, and they choose to wear sunscreen or stay outside the sun often.

Researchers also indicate that they still notice a small risk of skin cancer associated with only one tattoo, which increases their work repercussions.

“This is not a black and white condition,” said the head of the study. Rachel McCarteA former PhD student at the Fisherman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, in A. statement From the institute. “Instead, we need more research to understand what we see, and if this low risk is simply due to behavioral or physical factors, or if there are useful immune responses associated with tattoos that decreases the risk of skin cancer.”

It is worth noting at least another recent study to fail To find a link between cancer that are likely to be related, such as lymphoma and tattoos. So at least at the present time, the jury is still out of whether people should be concerned about their tattoos and to any extent.