The condition, known as tattoo-associated uveitis, can lead to permanent vision loss, glaucoma, and patients requiring immunosuppressants for the rest of their life.
While tattoo-associated uveitis was thought to be extremely rare, research published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology has documented 40 new cases of the condition in Australia — doubling the number of published cases detected around the world since 2010.
The research, undertaken by a team of Australians, suggests this complication, while still rare given the number of people who get tattoos, may be more common than we thought.
This and the recent studies about tattoo ink traveling to and affecting lymph nodes has cancelled my plans to get a tattoo. Not to mention I have eczema which I can imagine will have my skin not react kindly to a foreign substance.
So kinda like an allergy, that can develop with autoimmune arthritis and other stuff? Sounds to me, like the tattoos are not really the problem.
Well, it is pretty rare, but those 40 cases were all caused by a reaction to the black tattoo ink. If they didn’t get the tattoo they wouldn’t have had the problem. Still, if there are really only 40 cases in Australia and 25% of Austrailians have tattoos, it seems like there is just a 5.8 per million chance of having that problem. Obviously they have to be pre-disposed, but without a test for predisposition, then you always run that 0.00058% risk that getting a tattoo will blind you or cause you to have to take immunosuppresants forever.
The kurzgesagt video on laser tattoo removal is horrific. Like I need another reason to avoid the ink.
