Toxic inks from tattoos can permeate into people’s bodies and increase the risk of cancer, experts have warned.
British scientists have found evidence that nanoparticles from the tattoo inks can get into major organs of the body.
Tattoo ink manufacturers acknowledge that 5 per cent of tattoo studios use inks containing carcinogenic compounds, though they are campaigning to reduce it to zero.
Desmond Tobin, director of Bradford University’s centre for skin sciences, with Colin Grant, a medical engineer at the university, has shown that collagen, the body’s connective tissue, is permanently damaged by the dyes, and that nanoparticles of tattoo pigment are transferred away from the skin and into the body. — PTI
Tobin believes that toxins in the dyes may be entering the bloodstream and accumulating in the spleen or the kidneys, both organs responsible for filtering impurities from the blood, The Sunday Times reported. “It takes a long time for the multiple-step nature of cancer to show its face. I don’t think we should wait 20 years to see if there is anything wrong with these ingredients,” he said.