I am a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, computational and digital health expert, avocado-eater, and entrepreneur, not always in that order.This may make you think before you ink. A study of people in Sweden found that those who had gotten tattoos were 21% more likely to have subsequently been diagnosed with malignant lymphoma. And this was a case where size didn’t matter—the size of the tattoo, that is.
For the study, conducted in 2021, three researchers from Lund University in Lund, Sweden first used the Swedish National Cancer Register to find everyone 20 to 60 years of age who was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma sometime in the 2007 through 2017 time period. Then, for each of these lymphoma cases, the researchers used the Total Population Register to find three randomly selected controls that had matching ages and sexes. This yielded an initial study population totaling 11,905 people.
It turned out that a higher percentage of the cases had gotten tattoos than the controls. And those tattooed were 21% more likely to have developed lymphoma. The greatest increases in risk were for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma .The risk of developing lymphoma was highest within the first two years after the person had gotten a tattoo , decreased during the intervening three to ten years and then rose again after the 11-year-mark .
Plus, one study is not enough to affirm even just an association. More epidemiology studies are needed to see if tattooing is indeed linked to lymphoma and other health problems. And more other types of studies such as laboratory and clinical studies could help show whether a cause-and-effect situation is actually present.