Study links tattoos to 29pc higher risk of dangerous skin cancer

(Web Desk) - Can tattoos protect your skin from the sun's harmful rays, or do they make things worse? A new study I conducted with colleagues suggests there may be cause for concern.

We found that people with tattoos had a 29% higher risk of developing melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer often linked to ultraviolet (UV) exposure.

However, tattoos did not appear to increase the risk of squamous cell carcinoma, another type of skin cancer related to UV damage. Although both cancers share a common cause, they arise from different cell types and differ in severity, with melanoma being far more dangerous.

Tattoos are a powerful form of self-expression and a cornerstone of modern identity. In Sweden, around one in three adults is tattooed, showing how body art has moved firmly into the mainstream.

Yet despite their popularity, scientists still do not know whether tattoos have any impact on health, or how any potential effects might unfold over time.

Epidemiologists are now trying to answer these questions. The work is challenging because people who choose to get tattoos often differ from those who do not in ways that can influence health outcomes.

Another difficulty is that most health records do not note whether someone is tattooed, which means long-term patterns are hard to study. Without this basic information, it becomes difficult to know whether tattoos themselves play a role in health or whether differences are driven by other factors.

Melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma both develop slowly and are relatively uncommon, which makes long-term research challenging. Following large groups of tattooed and non-tattooed people for many years would be expensive and time-consuming.

So our team used a different approach. We started with people who had already been diagnosed with cancer and looked backward to see who had tattoos. This type of research, known as a case-control study, is an efficient way to detect potential associations.

Sweden maintains high-quality national registers that record information on health and demographics. From the National Cancer Register, we identified everyone aged 20 to 60 who was diagnosed with melanoma in 2017 or squamous cell carcinoma between 2014 and 2017.

This included 2,880 melanoma cases and 2,821 squamous cell carcinoma cases. For each case, we selected three comparison people of the same age and sex from the Total Population Register, who had not been diagnosed with skin cancer.

We then sent questionnaires to all participants, asking about tattoos, including decorative tattoos, permanent makeup and medical tattoos, as well as their size, location, and age at first tattoo. This allowed us to establish whether someone had been tattooed before or after developing cancer.

A total of 5,695 people took part in the melanoma study (1,598 with melanoma) and 6,151 in the squamous cell carcinoma study (1,600 with that cancer).

People with tattoos were 29% more likely to develop melanoma compared with those without tattoos. The risk increase seemed to be highest in those who had tattoos for more than ten years, although the numbers were smaller in this group, so results should be interpreted cautiously.

If you have tattoos, there is no need for panic, but awareness matters. Continue to protect your skin from UV radiation just as you would otherwise: use sunscreen, avoid excessive tanning and check your skin regularly for new or changing moles.