Tattoos Trigger Muscle Wasting in Three Men

“In the July 18th issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, doctors

from Israel report on three cases in which young men who had

recently gotten tattoos began losing muscle in the surrounding

area. All had tattoos on the upper body and suffered the muscle

meltdown in their shoulders and arms. Two also had nerve

damage.

There was no other explanation for the mysterious muscle wasting, and unfortunately, the

damage is permanent, Dr. Israel Steiner of Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem told

Reuters Health. Exactly how a tattoo would trigger muscle atrophy is unclear, he said, but

the possibilities include injury from the needle, bad technique on the part of the tattoo

artist, or the pigment in the tattoo ink. Some research, he noted, has suggested tattoo

pigment contains potentially toxic compounds.”