Via practica 5/2024

Complications of tattoo

Tattooing is one of the oldest forms of beautification of the human body, about which knowledge has been preserved. Tattoos are permanent forms of body art that belong to many cultures around the world. This form of art was and still is the visual language of the skin, which used to communicate various meanings throughout human history up to the present - beauty, cultural identity, status, faith, symbols of protection, a symbol of inclusion in a certain society, etc. When pigment particles are applied into the dermis, various complications can occur, whether acute or delayed, sometimes even months or years after the tattoo. Since the diagnosis of these complications is quite difficult, in this article we present a review, which discusses the possible complications described so far in the available literature.

Keywords: tattoo, complications, adverse skin reaction, cutaneous complication