Grenoble (AFP)
After the ink, the needles: an international team of researchers has shown that particles of needle metal used during tattoos could migrate into the body, at the risk of causing allergies.
"Chromium and nickel particles from abrasion of tattoo needles migrate to the lymph nodes," says a team of researchers, including some from Grenoble, in a study published Tuesday in the journal Particle and Fiber Toxicology .
The nickel and chromium of these needles can cause hypersensitivity reactions and "may therefore play a role in tattoo allergies".
Adverse reactions related to this mode, which have joined 18% of French over 18 years, have become common, say the authors of the study.
If the pigments used are regularly mentioned to explain tattoo allergies, this is the first time that the role of tattooing needles is raised.
Nothing to do with a possible lack of hygiene. It is a mechanical phenomenon that exists only "when the tattoo ink contains titanium dioxide (present in the bright colors of tattoos such as green, blue or red)", but not "with the black ink of carbon".
According to Ines Schreiver, the first author of the study, "the exact impact on health" tattoos can not yet be measured. "These are long-term effects that can only be evaluated by epidemiological studies that monitor the health of thousands of people over decades."
The team that conducted this study is led by researchers from the German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment. It also includes scientists from the European Synchrotron Grenoble (Isère) and several German institutes and universities.
© 2019 AFP