Body art is more popular than ever, with roughly one-third of people in the U.S. having at least one tattoo. However, tattoo inks often contain harmful chemicals, including carcinogenic pigments and metals. A recent study found that people with tattoos are 21% more likely to develop malignant lymphoma.

Researchers conducted a case-control study among roughly 1,400 people diagnosed with malignant lymphoma (“cases”) in people aged 20 to 60 over 10 years. They matched the cases with age- and sex-matched people without cancer (“controls”) from the general population. Then, they gathered information about the participants' tattoo exposure and assessed the relationship between tattoos and lymphoma risk.

They found that overall, participants with tattoos were 21% more likely to develop malignant lymphoma than those without. The risk of lymphoma among those who had received their first tattoo within the previous two years was 81% higher than those without a tattoo. Risk decreased nearly to baseline between three and 10 years after the first tattoo but increased again to 19% after 11 years, suggesting that long-term exposure to tattoo-related chemicals contributes to a delayed but persistent risk of developing lymphoma.

Undergoing laser removal of tattoos increased the risk of lymphoma by 163%. Oddly, greater tattoo surface area did not increase risk, with the highest lymphoma risk among people with tattoos smaller than the size of a deck of cards.

These findings point to potential links between tattoos and an increased risk of lymphoma. The tattooing process involves injecting ink into the skin through repeated punctures, breaching the skin’s protective barrier and triggering an immune response. As the ink enters the body, immune cells called macrophages attempt to engulf and isolate the foreign substance, driving the movement of pigment to nearby lymph nodes. Lasering tattoo ink induces the formation of toxic, carcinogenic substances that can persist in the body.