Ah , tattoo . To some , they are the pinnacle of artistic expression , to others they are a wearable reminder of past experiences , and to a very doomed handful , they are the case of seriouslyunpleasant medical problem .

After all , though we rarely brood on the details of the inking process , tattoo are produce by repeatedly puncturing the skin with a needle so as to push pigments – whose conceptualisation and output arenot regulatedby any health and safety oversight agency – into the tissue paper stratum that contains one ’s nerve endings , blood and lymph vessel , sweat and oily glands , and haircloth follicles .

This cutaneous harm and first appearance of foreign chemicals can lead to anasty sensitized reaction or bacterial infectionthat must be treated with anti - inflammatories or antibiotics . And thanks to an strange character   detailed inBMJ Case Reports , there is evidence that the progressively large subset of hoi polloi live with weaken resistant systems may be at risk of in particular serious forms of these complications .

According to the author , MD at a National Health Service ( NHS ) facility in Glasgow , the 31 - year - sure-enough womanhood at the meat of this warning taradiddle had been taking immunosuppressants for several class – following a 2009 double lung transplant – when things first went to the south . Because she had get a tattoo on her correct stage that heal uneventfully , she saw no reasonableness not to get one on her left over second joint : a lovely protection to the enduring love of Jack and Sally fromThe Nightmare Before Christmas .

Beginning just nine days after the tattoo was completed , she developed pain in the neck in her thigh and articulatio genus that was so severe she had to request anodyne . Her pain degree lowered somewhat shortly after yet remained bothersome enough over the next 10 month that her primary doctor(s ) mention her to a rheumatology section . Wanting to tax the possibleness of a joint or muscle disease , the specialists ran a number of mental test . They all came back negative .

Finally , a biopsy of her second joint musculus revealed she was endure from a poorly infer autoimmune shape calledinflammatory myopathy .   Characterized by persistent pain in the neck and muscularity weakness , the cause or causes of inflammatory myopathy have been unmanageable to nail .

“ We ca n’t utterly turn up it was due to the tattoo but because of the timing firstly , with the symptoms derive on one hebdomad after she had the tattoo , the locating being right underneath where she had the tattoo , it head us to entail there is a connectedness there having exhausted all other logical argument of interrogation , ” co - author William Wilson toldThe Guardian .

“ Nobody knows in most cases what causes inflammation in the muscle , the deduction is that it could be something like bacterium that has got in there , or it could be a reaction to a toxin – such as perhaps the ink , ” he added .

As there are no proven pharmaceutical treatments for incitive myopathy , the physicians recommended physical therapy to preclude muscle atrophy and maintain her range of drift . One twelvemonth after her symptoms onset , she get down to improve ; after three age , she was at long last pain - liberal .

“ Patients are improbable to discuss tattoos with medical master , even though these might be relevant . prospicient - term immunosuppressed patient are often untested adults who may wish to consider tattooing , ” the authors conclude .

“ It is well discern that immunosuppressed patient are at increased risk of infection include cutaneous mycobacterial infection . They therefore represent a group that is at a potentially higher risk of tattoo - related knottiness and justify special thoughtfulness . ”