Study: Nanoparticles From Tattoo Ink Can Migrate Through The Body

A newly released study indicates that tiny components of tattoo ink can travel throughout the human body and affect the lymph nodes over a long period of time.

Researchers from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility said that scientists long knew that tattoo pigments could travel to the lymph nodes because the organs become tinted.

But the latest study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is the first to show that they move throughout the body as nanoparticles.

The researchers used x-ray fluorescence measurements to show that titanium dioxide, a white pigment commonly used in tattoo inks, was found at a variety of sizes in the skin but only at the nano level in the lymph nodes.

Scientists said that could result in chronic enlargement of the lymph nodes and lifelong exposure.

They also cautioned that nanoparticles may not behave in the same way as larger particles. Although most tattoo inks contain organic pigments, they also generally include preservatives or contaminants such as chromium, cobalt, manganese or nickel.

The researchers hope to further investigate the properties of pigments that are used on tattoo recipients with adverse effects, but they said that the initial findings should prompt more caution from customers.

“When someone wants to get a tattoo, they are often very careful in choosing a parlor where they use sterile needles that haven't been used previously," Hiram Castillo, an ESRF scientists and one of the study's authors, said in a statement. "No one checks the chemical composition of the colors, but our study shows that maybe they should."