New study uncovers worrying risks for people who have tattoos

A new study has suggested that having tattoos could be a major health risk.

Amid a lack of research on the topic, Sweden's Lund University decided to investigate the long-term health effects of having tattoos - and what they found was not good.

Researcher Christel Nielsen, who led the study, said that the team sampled a large group of 11,905 people to find out more between the link of tattoos and lymphoma. Watch below:

What is lymphoma?

Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer and more than 13,000 people are diagnosed with it in the UK, according to the NHS.

The 'uncommon' cancer spreads from your white blood cells into the network of organs that help your body fight off infection.

New research

"We have identified people diagnosed with lymphoma via population registers," Nielsen explained.

"These individuals were then matched with a control group of the same sex and age, but without lymphoma.

"The study participants answered a questionnaire about lifestyle factors to determine whether they were tattooed or not."

Tattoos could have long-term health effects. (Lund University)

Out of the 11,905 people, 2,938 of them had lymphoma when they were between 20 and 60 years old.

In the group with lymphoma, 21 percent were tattooed (289), while 18 percent were tattooed in the control group without a lymphoma diagnosis (735).

The results

Nielsen's research group concluded that the size of the tattoo could increase the risk of lymphoma, and that it didn't matter where the tattoo was located on the body.

Though they emphasised that further research is required to confirm the findings, and that they aren't trying to put people off getting tatted.

"After taking into account other relevant factors, such as smoking and age, we found that the risk of developing lymphoma was 21 percent higher among those who were tattooed," Nielsen said.

"It is important to remember that lymphoma is a rare disease and that our results apply at the group level.

Having tattoos might increase your risk of developing lymphoma. (Lund University)

"The results now need to be verified and investigated further in other studies and such research is ongoing.

"We already know that when the tattoo ink is injected into the skin, the body interprets this as something foreign that should not be there and the immune system is activated.

"A large part of the ink is transported away from the skin, to the lymph nodes where it is deposited."

What should you do if you have a tattoo?

"People will likely want to continue to express their identity through tattoos, and therefore it is very important that we as a society can make sure that it is safe," Nielsen warned.

"For the individual, it is good to know that tattoos can affect your health, and that you should turn to your health care provider if you experience symptoms that you believe could be related to your tattoo."