Infective complications of tattooing and skin piercing

Abstract

Body piercing appears to be gaining popularity and social acceptance. With the increase in the number of piercings and tattoos, it is likely that health care providers may see an increase in the complications resulting from these piercings. These may include the transmission of hepatitis viruses and bacteria at the time of the piercing or in the course of wound care. We review the infectious complications that have resulted from body piercing and tattooing that has been documented in the medical literature.

Cleaning Up the Dirty Work: Professionalization and the Management of Stigma in the Cosmetic Surgery and Tattoo Industries

“…The tattoo industry has been somewhat less successful at medicalizing, due in part to the general disconnect between tattooing and medicine in the mind of the consumer. Nevertheless, because much of the criticism of tattooing is framed using a medicalized vocabulary focusing on illness, infection, and sanitation (see Armstrong 1999;Braithwaite et al 1999;Messahel and Musgrove 2009), a medicalized response is necessary. This response can best be described as the use of a medical façade, insofar as medical language, imagery, and techniques are employed to associate the practices within the tattoo studio with those of medical establishments.…”

“…Most often, prior research has associated tattooing with the transmission of infectious diseases ranging from Hepatitis B and C (Armstrong 1999;Armstrong et al 2002), Syphilis (Nishioka and Gyorkos 2001), and Herpes (Messahel and Musgrove 2009) to HIV (Braithwaite et al 1999). Likewise, much of the risk involved is attributed to factors such as cleanliness or reuse of tattoo needles, particularly by amateur tattooists (Armstrong 1999;Messahel and Musgrove 2009), the use of pigments that are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (Armstrong et al 2002), along with the overall environment, inconsistent procedures for the management and sanitation of tattoo equipment, and irregular regulatory oversight (Armstrong and Murphy 1997). To respond to these issues, tattoo artists and studios must necessarily employ an approach that uses the language, and attendant practices, of medical discourse.…”

Tattoos: Evaluation of knowledge about health complications and their prevention among students of Tricity universities

“…The most common skin response to tattooing reported in the literature is a transient acute inflammatory reaction, superficial and deep local infection, systemic infection, allergic contact dermatitis, photodermatitis, granulomatous and lichenoid reaction, skin disease provoked and localized on tattooed areas—such as eczema, psoriasis, lichen planus, and morphea . Inappropriate hygiene rules in tattoo saloons and nonmedical wound care are major risk factors causing tattoo‐related bacterial, viral, and fungal infections . The interest in tattooing is steadily growing; however, at the present time, there are no legislations that would regulate which qualifications are required from tattoo artists as well as formally classifying the ink composition to be injected into the skin.…”

Human papillomavirus type 27 associated with multiple verruca within a tattoo: report of a case and review of the literature

“…Tattooing complications are vast and can include allergic reactions and granulomatous disorders, including sarcoidosis, and infections. Several types of infections have been reported, including local bacterial, mycobacterial, viral, and fungal infections, and systemic infections including hepatitis, syphilis, and human immunodeficiency virus 3 …”