silentspring

Your thread was locked on the other thread for a reason. If you spent any amount of time researching contact dermatitis, you find that a person may never find what specific ingredient they have or had a reaction to. You would also find that one could have a reaction 1 time, but not the next. Your own documents provided on your locked thread were even titled "rare cases". This doesn't mean that the ingredient is a carcinogen, it simply means that your unique biology is not compatible with it. Anyway, I think there was no foul play here. Likley you had a reaction to a heavy metal used on pretty much all ink

http://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/survey-selected-samples-tattoo-inks-presence-of-heavy-metals-july13_0.pdf

My thread was locked because another user was behaving badly.

Yes I've read that survey and was surprised that the reds they tested were more compliant overall than the rest of the inks, go figure. Red is the most common color linked to adverse reactions though, which is a shame as it looks so lovely on the skin

Analyze your above sentence.

I am not trying to shut you down nor discourage you from keep trying to find your answers but bashing around is not going to help you.

Take care and God Bless.

I'm toning it down because I am looking for information and people are closing ranks. You offered to help me but got bullied into shutting that down and someone thought it would be funny to make a racist meme about my story. I really do not understand why no one can tell me what is in the ink? I didn't mean to bash around, sorry about that and thanks again for trying to help earlier.

silentspring,

I sympathize with you, I have had family member with cancer before and a close friend of mine, his wife battle breast cancer 3 times.

But I am not understanding the ink issue.

Nobody in this thread mention (quote me if I am wrong) that the issue is or was the ink.

Ink was mentioned as not being a likely cause, as it was a"good brand" whatever that means. I have sensitive allergic skin and if I had've known to take an antihistamine to avoid any potential issues (wool, lotion, ink etc) then I may have been able to save my tattoo. That is what I mean

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@silentspring Everybody here sympathises with you, but if you're going to turn this into a crusade about the ingredients in tattoo inks--and your name would imply that's exactly what you mean to do--then just come out and say it.

I'm not on a crusade. I have used the SS name since I was in university (18 years ago) and studied environmental politics. I had NO IDEA that i would not be able to find out the ingredients in the ink. It does make me wonder what people are hiding if they won't disclose though. The feeling I'm getting is that the industry has closed ranks to protect a company or companies or ideologies or agendas (i have no idea what is being protected) and it smells very fishy.

Ahhh I wish I had seen this thread before I had my cover up done! My allergic contact dermatitis irritated my skin so much that a cancer popped up in it and I've had to have it chopped.

If only we knew what was in the ink then we could make the decisions about what is best for our own bodies. I know you say it was a "good brand" but how do you know what was in it? What may be good for one may be deadly to another (peanuts for example).

I have a known nickel allergy and if I had've known that xyz ink contained nickel and abc ink didn't, i surely would've opted for abc and saved the tattoo, money, surgery and anxiety which have followed on

http://www.dermatology.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/P8_01-2013.pdf

http://www.pubfacts.com/detail/19903437/Keratoacanthoma-in-a-tattoo. (this links to a number of research papers in this area)

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Interesting read. I feel like the conclusion of that paper agrees with me.

Thank you for reading it Brian, I appreciate your committment to the intellect of the discussion.

I feel like the bit just before the conclusion agrees with me :) SCC is Squamous cell carcinoma by the way.

"red is known to be the main color responsible for hypersensitivity tattoo reactions and seems to be the most common color for triggering SCCs, keratoacanthomas, and pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia.4 Therefore, the authors of this presented case think that SCC occurrence is strongly connected with the red ink’s usage for tattooing."

Here is a link to a paper on squamous cell carcinoma arising in a red tattoo. The brand this unlucky guy used was eternal

http:// http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174140/

This particular brand of ink is linked to cancer. Mine. There is no misinformation here

I'm curious too, my Dr, dermatologist and surgeon have all told me that I have had an allergic reaction to something in the red ink in my tattoo.

I hope yours has healed up now, mine turned cancerous and had to be excised!

I understand your above statement. What I did not understand is your vagueness.

My hands are up and I am complying with your orders. :D

Thank you for your attempt at helping me xcom. I'm sorry that you have been accused of starting a witch hunt, when actually if the witches were honest about their ingredients this wouldn't need to be happening.

I don't know how anyone can think they can guarantee anything about a cancerous reaction (cells tested in an actual lab) on my skin which is mimicked to a lesser degree on ALL OF THE RED AREAS.

Cultexciter I admit I'm fairly unlucky but you've got no right to try to shut this conversation down.

I ask what is in the ink for my own health and that of my fellow humans.

X swear words x

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Because it perpetuates misinformation and incorrect perceptions. If you don't understand why that is inappropriate then you are in the wrong place.

What misinformation is being perpetuated here precisely? A product I can find no information on has caused an allergic reaction which has turned cancerous (contact dermatitis can do this if the allergen is not removed).

It's very hard to see what is inappropriate about trying to identify the allergen.

Keep your propaganda out of my thread please

I could help if you know the brand of the ink used? Keep us posted!

I found this photo I took of the ink, can you identify it?

Thank you all for your kind replies. I will keep you posted about the pathology.

I emailed the artist today and asked for the details of the ink ingredients so I can possibly identify a toxin. I'm wondering if he will bother replying since I've emailed the shop about this a few times and I get responses from the counter girl which are vague and unhelpful. Today she replied and said she had forwarded my email to him, which made me wonder if he has even seen the earlier ones...

I won't be going back there that's for sure!

Well I am fairly impressed with the result when you consider the amount of tissue I had removed. Now I have to wait for pathology and hope for clear margins!

Hi

I also have really sensitive skin and developed an allergic reaction to something in the red ink which was used in my tattoo in December last year. None of the red areas healed properly but one really festered... I had it tested and it had turned cancerous. I've had surgery to remove it today and they took a big chunk from my leg. There are a number of small studies looking into allergic contact dermatitis from red ink. My advice would be if your skin is sensitive to stay away from red. My case is rare but it also really sucks! There's more info in my intro post from yesterday.

My dermatologist has prescribed dermol cream to use on the remaining red areas, he said it may fade the red but that this should also reduce the allergic response.

All the best

SS

Hi

I'm from New Zealand... I'm 36 & had my first tattoo at 18. When I was 34 I got stupid dumb breast cancer and in December 14 I got a tattoo to symbolize the journey blah blah.

Anyway, the red areas took longer to heal than the rest, and then in late January I noticed a bump in one section, like a bit of a raised itchy area. I scratched it and the top came off and left what appeared to be a raised red area with a deep pin hole in the middle.

I went to the Dr, she said hmmm, that looks like squamous cell carcinoma! I'm like wtf? So long story short they biopsy it a few days later... The results come back as a keratoacanthoma, unable to exclude squamous cell carcinoma!

That was two weeks ago. Tomorrow I'm missing my friend's wedding so I can have surgery, wide local excision, to remove the lesion.

I guess I came here to see if anyone has ever come across this kind of thing before, and to get ideas for a cover up as it's gonna be a bit ugly.

I love the red and I'm super gutted I won't be getting any more!

Look forward to seeing how this plays out!

The photo attached shows the progression just in three weeks