effect of body art on environment and health

EFFECT OF BODY ART ON

ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH

Adedotun T. ADEOLU

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Outline

- Introduction- What is Body art?- Types of Body arts- Components of tattoo ink- Reactions in tattoo ink- Health effects of tattoo- Environmental effects of tattoo- Conclusion - Recommendation

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Introduction

Body art is art work done on the body of man. It might be for the purpose of beautification, identification or medication.

‘The key to man’s health lies largely in his environment.

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Introduction cont’dMuch of man’s ill health can be traced to

adverse social environmental factors such as habits and practices that might be influenced by custom, culture and socio-economic factors.

The practice of body arts (especially tattooing and piercing), once not very common in developing countries, has now expanded into societies. Mostly young people have shown great enthusiasm for these practices.

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Introduction cont’dLittle or no consideration is given to the

health implications as most of the materials and conditions with which and under which they are carried out are detrimental to man’s health.

Under unsanitary conditions, a lot of health problem do arise from these practices.

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Types of Body Art

• Tattoos

• Body piercing

• Branding

• Scarification

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Body Piercing

• Piercing involves long-term insertion of an object through the skin allowing ornaments to be worn.

• Body piercing is prevalent in our society.

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Any penetration of the skin with resultant bleeding has the potential to cause infections including the transmission of blood borne viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis B or C

Source: Southern Primary Health – Noarlunga, October 2006

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Scarification

Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning/branding or superficially cutting designs, pictures or words into the body as a permanent body modification.

Variables, such as skin type, cut depth and how the wound is treated while healing, makes the outcome unpredictable.

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There are numerous infections that can be spread through poor hygienepractices , e.g. HIV, HBV

Source: Crockodile Scarification. Korogo village, 1975.

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West african scarification Source:http://www.randomafricanart.com/Scarification_and_Cicatrisation_among_African_cultures.html


Scarification

This is related to the communities where traditionalists make the mark using the primitive tools without proper sterilization and treatment.


TattooingTattoo is the insertion of ink or some other

pigment through the outer covering of the body (the epidermis) into the dermis, the second layer of skin.

Due to high demand, the number of unprofessional tattooists and piercers has increased creating more complications due to frequent procedures carried out without any knowledge of health and hygiene rules .


Tattoo Source:http://www.lastsparrow.com/gallery/letting-tattoos/9699-no-regrets.html 14Adedotun T. ADEOLU

Arm Laser tattosSource: http://gasolemc.blogspot/2011/09/sweet-tribal-art-man.html?m=1 15Adedotun T. ADEOLU

Henna tattooSource:http://iohu.org/rathayatra/festival-of-india-harrisburg/henna-tattoo/ 16Adedotun T. ADEOLU

Componets of tattoo ink• Inks may be made from iron oxides, metal salts and

plastics.

• Traditional tattoo inks may be made from pen ink, soot, dirt, blood, or other ingredients.

• Heavy metals used for colours include mercury (red); lead (yellow, green, white); cadmium (red, orange, yellow); nickel (black); zinc (yellow, white); chromium (green); cobalt (blue); copper (blue, green); iron (brown, red, black); and barium (white).

• Carbon (soot or ash) is also used for black inks

• Organic chemicals used include azo-chemicals (orange, brown, yellow, green, violet). 17Adedotun T. ADEOLU

Tattooists use a sharp implement to puncture the skin and thus make an indelible mark, design, or picture on the body.

Rotation-Tatoo Machine Source: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo


A variety of inks used by tattooists.

Source: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo


Reactions in ink• Releases of Aromatic Amines (o-anisidine, o-

toluidine) have been created by irradiation with UV light. Aromatic amines are a class of chemicals often found in plastics, pesticides, foams, dyes, pharmaceuticals and semi-conductors.

• These amines have been linked to bladder and breast cancer.

• The production of carcinogenic aromatic amines and other substances if in certain inks/pigments are irradiated by laser light in order to remove tattoos.


Glow in the dark ink and black light ink

Both black light and glow in the dark inks have been used for tattooing. Glow in the dark ink absorbs and retains light, and then glows in darkened conditions by process of phosphorescence.

Black light ink does not glow in the dark, but reacts to non-visible UV light, producing a visible glow by fluorescence. The resulting glow of both these inks is highly variable.


Health effects of tattoos


Source: Byron et al., 20012. Outbreak of Mycobacterium chelonae InfectionAssociated with Tattoo Ink

Tattoo ink infection case study


Toxicity and Photo-toxicity

• Many tattoo ink pigments photo-decompose in the presence of sunlight to form cytotoxic and potentially genotoxic products (Cuyper and Perez-Cotapos, 2010).

• Some of these decomposition products are suspect, or known, human carcinogens.

• The skin possesses metabolic systems that can metabolize ink pigments to multiple products.

• Using isolated enzyme systems, Pigment Yellow 74 is metabolized by cytochromes P450 to oxidized products and is reduced at the nitro group to reactive aryl nitroso and hydroxylamines.


Allergies• Most of the materials used are mainly azo dyes,

with specific reactions to mercury salt, nickel sulphate and cadmium sulphide (Cuyper and Perez-Cotapos, 2010).

• Reactions from sunlight and laser induced chemical change in tattoo pigments.

• Reactions of tattoos supposed to be allergic in nature really dominate the clinical spectrum of chronic adverse events in tattoos.

• Reactions are inflammatory or so called “lichenoid” and ranges from ulceration to excessive epidermal hyperplasia.


Lichenoid reaction to red ink in a black and red tattoo.

Ink allergySource: Cutaneous allergic reactions to tattoo ink. Kaur et al., 2009.


Reaction to blue ink with a palpable plaque and localized edema.

Ink allergySource: Cutaneous allergic reactions to tattoo ink. Kaur et al., 2009.


Microbial infections • Poor hygienic standards and careless

procedures can result in localized infections and also lead to severe life-threatening conditions or even result in irreversible damage and scarring.

• The most frequent are local bacterial infections at the site of the procedure.

• They are often caused by common pathogens such as Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), M. chelonae, M. leprae (Leprosy)


Microbial infections cont’d

• These infections can result in secondary infections like cellulitis, sepsis, abscess, endocarditis, and gangrene’

• Viral infections such as hepatitis A, B, C and D, HIV and Herpes simplex.

• Systematic fungal infections like candidiasis


Environmental Effects of Tattos• Tattoo inks are made of substances like heavy

metals which has the potential to bio accumulate in biological and environmental systems and aromatic amines that could be carcinogenic.

• Due to improper management of this special waste (hazardous), It gets mixed with solid waste.

• During the rainy season, it may get added to the ground water and spreads hazardous diseases.


Conclusion

• Most tattoos are applied impulsively and ignorantly in youths. They are often regretted and create significant psychological, social and even financial burdens.

• Social environmental factors such as habit and practice have a link to man’s state of health.

• Infections, allergies and scaring are part of health effects of body arts.

• Tattoo inks are made of substances like heavy metals which has the potential to bio accumulate in biological and environmental systems and aromatic amines that could be carcinogenic.


Recommendations

• Tattoo dyes should be subject to testing or licensing by national health authorities.

• Tattoo artists should avoid contamination and consumers should be aware of the risks associated with getting a tattoo.

• Health education should be directed against socio-cultural practices which are aetiological risk factors


BODY ARTS...think before you ink


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effect of body art on environment and health

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