Late regret may not be the only risk we run when we decide to get a tattoo. In fact, a Swedish study indicates that having a tattoo could increase the chances of suffering from lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer, by up to 21 percent. And that the risks would be independent of the size of the tattoo.
The study, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, was conducted in 2021 by three researchers from Lund University, using the Swedish National Cancer Registry to find all subjects between the ages of 20 and 60 who had been diagnosed with malignant lymphoma between 2007 and 2017. For each of the lymphoma cases, the researchers also selected three healthy controls, with matching age and sex, for a total of 5,500 people.
Each of the participants in the study was given a questionnaire that asked a series of questions regarding lifestyle, and for those with tattoos, the size of the tattoo and the date it was obtained. Next, the researchers assessed how common lymphoma was among tattooed and non-tattooed people, taking into account factors, such as cigarette smoking or education level, that can increase the chance of getting the disease.
Tattoos were linked to a 21% increased risk of developing lymphoma. The size of the tattoo does not seem to influence the risk, while the time elapsed since getting the tattoo does: the risk would be higher in the first two years after the tattoo (81% more than in non-tattooed people), and would then decrease in the following 3- 10 years, and then increases again to 11 years since the tattoo was done (19% more).
All doubts about the study
The results are certainly interesting, especially in a country like Italy, which leads the world ranking of countries with the highest percentage of the population (48% in our case) that has at least one tattoo. But they should not be taken as certainties, on the contrary: the methods with which the study was carried out, in fact, do not allow us to establish a causal link between tattoos and lymphoma, but only to identify a statistical correlation.
What does it mean? That even if lymphomas were really more common among tattooed people, it is impossible to establish whether it is the tattoo itself that causes the tumor, or whether it is rather some other risk factor more common among those who love tattoos (diet, sedentary lifestyle , work) to explain the increase in the incidence of lymphomas.
As the authors of the study point out, however, there are several reasons to consider the link between tattoos and tumors plausible. In fact, some types of ink used in tattoos contain potentially carcinogenic substances. And it is also known that the immune response that the body implements when you get a tattoo transports a high quantity of ink particles into the lymph nodes (where there are many lymphocytes, the cells from which lymphomas originate) and other organs of the lymphatic system.
To have some more certainty, further research will therefore be needed. What is certain is that the risks, if they were real, would be extremely limited: lymphoma in Sweden affects around 22 people out of 100 thousand between 20 and 60 years of age. And therefore an additional 21% risk would not significantly increase the absolute probability of getting ill.