We all have been reading lots about tattoo risks, still we see more and more people coming up with new tattoos. Tattoo industry is booming nowadays. One thing we all will agree is that in the recent years, there has been an explosion in women’s lower-back tattoos. Getting a lower back tattoos can pose problems to the expecting mothers. A recent report issued by the The Wall Street Journal, has raised an alarm.
This report is not prima facie, year after year, the issue is coming back. In the year 2002, a pair of Canadian anesthesiologists published a report that questioned whether administering an epidural through lower tattoo could be risky. In 2006 a study was conducted by American Academy of Dermatology and it was found that nearly one-quarter of Americans (between 18 and 50) are tattooed, out of which nearly 20% of the women have tattoos on their lower back.
Risks involved:
Tattoos are no doubt risky. Infection due to unsterile equipment is well known complication. Another risk that is much talked about is tattooed patients getting burned and it is said that inks may contain metals, which could react during an MRI.
Lower back tattoos posing risk to mothers-to be:
An epidural is the injection of painkilling medicine that is given to expecting mothers to ease the discomfort of labor. According to the recent report, the national epidural rate is nearly 65% of the four million births a year in the U.S. The recent report has raised the issue of whether it’s safe to stick a needle through a tattoo in the lower back for an epidural and has raised many questions. Different people have given different views regarding the issue. Let’s check out the views of some of them.
William Camann, chief of obstetric anesthesia at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston:
He is of view that tattooed women need not worry for getting epidurals as long as the ink has fully dried and the wound is healed.
The Food and Drug Administration:
It says tattoo inks and pigments have not yet been specifically approved. There are two FDA-backed studies under way that are evaluating possible adverse reactions to the ink, and ways of testing it for toxicity.
Krzysztof Kuczkowski, chief of obstetric anesthesia at the University of California San Diego Medical Center:
Citing the example of her 34-year-old patient with tattoos covering her mid-lumbar area who received an epidural, Dr. Kuczkowski gave her views saying that tattoos are the worst culprits. The patient experienced unusual burning, tenderness and swelling where the epidural catheter had been placed.
These different views regarding the issue have raised more questions than answers. Time after time, this issue has been proven to be a non-issue. Seems would-be mothers still have to wait to get the answers of their questions.
Image Credit for the first picture.
Source: Book Of Joe
Comments
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myth busters did an experiment to see if that was a valid issue (if an mri would cause reactions with tattoos) and it didnt. They found no interaction between tattoo inks and MRI
oh, this is really intersting.. i have a question... im from mexico :)...
if someone knows if make tattoos cause cancer?... or some problem.. i have two tattos.. but they’re little” in my back.. and near my hand.. but im thinking to get a big one in my back.. so please.. someone.. tell me... or.. if someone know the materials of this things. yu know the liquid... etc... tthank you!!!
I have three very large tattoos and have had 3 MRI’s done within the last 2 years. I was not even asked if I had any. I had no reactions whatsoever. I also have 2 kids and have had epidurals, and again, no reaction to them at all.
Why don’t they ask people and the physicians who have performed the procedures instead of relying on one case and some expert who has never even been near a tattoo gun?
There are a heck of a lot more risks to getting a epidural than the minute one that having a tattoo there MIGHT bring! My thoughts when reading this was not ”a reason to not get a tattoo” but perhaps one more reason to NOT have an epidural.
Women have give birth unmedicated since the beginning of time....
can more women who have lower back tattoos and have given birth post their experience?
This is more about sense of style and cultural perspective then about safety. As both a long time tattoo enthusiast and more recently a practitioner, I have seen or experienced little beyond some scarring. Infections happen to unsafe people, which does not suggest anything about the practice itself being unsafe. I neither have nor have given a tattoo with any unsafe ink, which is the standard in the industry. I mean you could tattoo yourself with turpentine and cobalt, then again you could pour molten lead into your eyeballs, neither is acceptable in the respectable tattoo community.