Do red tattoos make sunburns turn into skin cancer faster?
Red tattoos, ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer in mice
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave mice sunburns and tattooed some with red ink. The ink didn't cause cancer by itself, but when mice got sunburns, the tattooed ones got their third skin tumor a bit sooner and the tumors grew a little faster.
Surprising Findings
Tattooed mice didn’t get cancer sooner—they got it the same number of times, just faster-growing and the third one slightly earlier.
People assume tattoos increase cancer risk overall, but the study shows no increase in first or second tumors—only acceleration of later ones.
Practical Takeaways
If you have red tattoos, be extra vigilant about sun protection—wear SPF 50+ and cover up during peak UV hours.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave mice sunburns and tattooed some with red ink. The ink didn't cause cancer by itself, but when mice got sunburns, the tattooed ones got their third skin tumor a bit sooner and the tumors grew a little faster.
Surprising Findings
Tattooed mice didn’t get cancer sooner—they got it the same number of times, just faster-growing and the third one slightly earlier.
People assume tattoos increase cancer risk overall, but the study shows no increase in first or second tumors—only acceleration of later ones.
Practical Takeaways
If you have red tattoos, be extra vigilant about sun protection—wear SPF 50+ and cover up during peak UV hours.
Publication
Journal
Experimental Dermatology
Year
2017
Authors
C. Lerche, I. M. Heerfordt, J. Serup, T. Poulsen, H. Wulf
Related Content
Claims (6)
Chronic ultraviolet radiation exposure is the primary etiological factor in the development of non-melanoma skin cancers, specifically basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, which frequently occur on sun-exposed facial regions and can result in significant structural disfigurement upon surgical excision.
In mice that got sunburns from UV light, those with red tattoos got their third skin tumor a bit sooner and the tumors grew a little faster than in mice without tattoos.
Red tattoos alone, without sun exposure, didn’t cause any skin tumors in mice.
When tumors did appear in sun-exposed mice with red tattoos, they grew faster than tumors in mice without tattoos.
The red ink used in the study contains a chemical (2-anisidine) that’s not allowed in human tattoos because it might cause cancer.