Warning for stings! | Haaland News

The social stigma surrounding tattoos has disappeared in large parts of Swedish society. Today, every fifth person has a tattoo. And even more among the younger generation. Although it is still common for people in working professions to have tattoos, you can also see teachers, doctors and lawyers with tattoos today. The latter, however, often refrain from placing the images in a way that cannot be hidden.

This does not mean that getting a tattoo is as simple as many people, especially young people, think. Placing the ink under the skin can lead to infection, allergies, and other injuries. When you get a tattoo, your immune system recognizes the ink as foreign particles and tries to break it down with the help of your lymphatic system. This puts increased stress on your body.

Recently, a scientific study was published at Lund University, which showed that the consequences can be really serious. Tattoos can increase the risk of developing lymphoma – even if the tattoo is small.

The researchers examined lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes) in people who were between 20 and 60 years old when they were diagnosed. In this age group, there were exactly 300 cases per year in Sweden. The results were startling. The risk of lymphoma was 21% higher among those who had tattoos. In the results, the researchers also evaluated other factors such as smoking and age.

Although lymphoma is an uncommon disease, it is useful to be aware of the health risks of tattoos. Until now, these have been relatively unknown and only a few studies like the one in Lund have been conducted. A parallel study on skin cancer and tattoos is now underway. We hope that this will lead to greater awareness of the risks and that those who nevertheless choose this way of decorating their bodies do so in the safest possible way.