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Tattoos and Hepatitis C
A new study shows the risk of contracting hepatitis C increases significantly among people who have tattoos. Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas studied more than 600 patients. They found 18 percent of these patients had a tattoo. Of those patients with a tattoo, more than 20 percent were infected with hepatitis C and 33 percent of those patients had acquired their tattoos in a commercial tattoo parlour. Only 3.5 percent of patients with no tattoos had hepatitis C. Researchers also found those patients who had several tattoos had an increased risk of having the potentially fatal disease. Hepatitis C attacks the liver and can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Of the study, Robert Haley, M.D., says, "We found that commercially acquired tattoos accounted for more than twice as many hepatitis C infections as injection-drug use. This means that it may have been the largest single contributor to the nationwide epidemic of this form of hepatitis." |
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Getting a tattoo may not seem dangerous, but many tattoo recipients are now getting more than they bargained for.
Risk factors for the disease can include injection-drug use, prior blood transfusions, sexual promiscuity, acupuncture, and electrolysis. Hepatitis C can be passed through tattooing by reusing needles or dye and insufficient sterilization of needles between customers.
