13 September, 2015: Tattoo has been the latest trend amongst youngsters, but experts and doctors warn against the potential hazards that it can cause. Even though tattoo artists replace the needles, the paint is the same, and doctors warn that infectious blood can be transferred through these paints.
The infections spread most commonly through tattooing are Hepatitis B and C. The latter is 100 times more infectious than HIV and no vaccines are available for the disease.
The paints used to make tattoos are expensive and often imported. Hence artists use the same bottle for multiple clients.The process of making a tattoo involves penetration of the needle deep into the layer under the skin surface, so some blood always gets transferred into the paint bottle, which causes a high chance of infection for other clients.
Doctors says that the chances of the virus entering the blood stream of a person are more if he gets the tattoo done immediately after an infected person at the tattoo parlour. Also, since Hepatitis C might go undetected for years, a carrier does not usually know the extent of damage caused to his body.Usually paints used in the process have been seen causing other infections like bacterial, fungal, allegoric reactions, ulcers and rashes.
