Health
Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Switzerland spent seven years tracking what happens to tattoo ink after it enters the skin.
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Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS), reveal that ink does not stay put.
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“When you tattoo your skin, you also ‘tattoo’ your immune system,” the Institute said in its statement.
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The study tested black, red, and green inks on mice and examined tissue from humans with tattoos.
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Within ten minutes of tattooing, ink particles appeared in lymphatic vessels — the body’s drainage system. Within 24 hours, large quantities had accumulated in lymph nodes, the organs that filter infections.
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Two months later, the amount of pigment in these nodes had increased. Black and red inks travelled furthest, reaching multiple lymph nodes. The same patterns appeared in human tissue samples.