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- Somebody I know claimed that “tattoos were dangerous because people die from them”. Now, I have none myself (which was what he was teasing me about) and I don’t know much about them, but I don’t think I have ever heard of a death that could be blamed only on getting a tattoo.
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- I looked around a bit but all I found was incidents of Hepatitis infection, usually C. Obviously with the proper efforts one can die from that I suppose (with heavy IV drug use…), but I didn’t even find very many accounts of that. Are there any figures available on this subject? Deaths due to disease directly caused by tattoos. - DougC
You might die if you’re allergic to mercury.
In traditional Japanese tatooing cadmium is still used for red colouration.
This means that the person being tattoed can only have a small part filled in at one go or risk poisoning.
Large tattoos take years to produces as a result.
Western tattoists don’t use cadmium for obvious reasons.
I have two, and neither have any mercury compounds in the colors. I thoroughly checked out the credentials of both artists, and reviewed the content of the inks used.
As stated in this fact sheet from the FDA concerning tattoos , you can see that the most common adverse effect is dissatisfaction with the tattoo in general.
I’m glad the FDA is finally giving tattoo ink content the attention it deserves.
I’d guess the most common cause of tattoo-related death is when the wrong name occurs in the tattoo. I decided long ago that the only name I’d ever engrave on my body is my own…
I had a friend who had an allergic reaction to the red dye used in her tattoo. It didn’t kill her, but I suppose it could have proved fatal for someone with a more severe allergy.
Here is Massachusetts, tattooing was illegal until 2001 because of health concerns. The state Supreme Court overturned the law, finding that it violated the First Ammendment (as well as Article 16 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights). Unfortunately, I can’t find a copy of the court’s opinion online without downloading special software, so I can’t say whether it addresses the health concerns involved in tattooing.
dunno about tatoo related deaths, but nearly 600 people per year are injured by tea-pots in the UK!!
isnt that great?
LMAO @ a_gherkin & Ms Lois [or engrave just: “insert your name here”]
If you get hep c from tattoo needles, you can suffer and die just as miserably as if you got it from IV drug use, unprotected sex, or tainted transfusions. And if you do get Hep C, kiss your alcohol consumption goodbye (if you’re serious about surviving the hep c, that is).
And I’ve also got an AIDS patient now whose old tattoo seems to be undergoing some sort of malignant transformation into a skin cancer. We just biopsied it the other day, hope to have results soon.
I’ve been Tattooing professionaly for more than 13 years and I’ve never heard of any deaths from the tattoo process. Professional tattooists are as clean as your dentist (maybe cleaner).
In all this time, I’ve seen only 4 allergic reactions to tattoo ink (FYI I’ve seen over 100 reactions to neosporin). Any tattooist worth his salt will know what to do about an allergic reaction. Doctors always want to charge you a lot of money to remove the tattoo but, that is not nessary.
Another thing about allergic reactions is that they seem to be drug related. I once saw a woman that had a 5 year old tattoo that suddenly swelled up in the skin. After a few questions I found out that she had also started snorting crank to loose weight.
I’m not saying that all allergic reactions to tattoo colors are drug related, only that all the ones that I’ve seen have been.
I somehow don’t think too many people are allergic per se to mercury. Mercury is a heavy metal toxin (like cadmium), and thus no allergy is required to become sick and die from repeated or large exposure.
may be a bit late i see this board was up in 2002 but i did find a list of common toxins used in tattoo ink by color (not going to post the url, it is not hard to find this information);
COMMON INGREDIENTS OF INKS BY COLOR
RED: mercury, cadmium, iron, ferrocyanide, ferricyanide, naptha derived chemicals
ORANGE: cadmium, azo chemicals
YELLOW: lead, cadmium, zinc, ferrocyanide, ferricyanide, azo chemicals
GREEN: lead, chromium, aluminum, copper, ferrocyanide, ferricyanide, azo chemicals
BLUE: cobalt, copper, ferrocyanide, ferricyanide
VIOLET: aluminum, azo chemicals
BROWN: iron, azo chemicals
BLACK: nickel, iron, carbon as soot or ash, black henna
WHITE: lead, zinc, titanium, barium
Out here in San Jose there are some gang related murders every year related to having the wrong gang tat in the wrong neighborhood, but I am not sure that’s what the OP is talking about.
Still, some caution is suggested.