New research in PNAS finds that tattoo pigments accumulated in lymph nodes altered antibody production in mice, but scientists caution that more research is needed before applying these findings to humans.
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that tattoo pigments may cause chronic inflammation in lymph nodes and potentially reduce local vaccine antibody responses — but so far, the findings only apply to mice, not humans, researchers emphasized.
In the experiment, scientists injected black and red tattoo inks into laboratory mice and observed that pigment particles traveled to nearby lymph nodes, where they remained and caused persistent low-grade inflammation.
When researchers later administered a vaccine in the same tattooed area, mice produced fewer antibodies than control animals, indicating that local immune activity may have been disrupted.
The authors stress the results are preliminary and cannot be generalized to humans without further research. Tattoo pigments, inflammation mechanisms, dosage, and human immune responses may differ significantly.
Still, the findings raise new questions about how long-term pigment accumulation interacts with immune function, and whether tattoo location could matter when receiving shoulder or arm-based vaccines.
More studies — including clinical research in humans — will be needed to determine whether these effects translate beyond mice.
