The Surprising Health Benefit of Having a Tattoo

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Here's an interesting fact to roll out the next time your mom complains about your tattoo: That ink could be boosting your immune system.

A new study published in the American Journal of Human Biology found that tattoos can strengthen your body's immunological response, increasing the odds your body will be better at fighting off infections than it was pre-tattoo.

For the study, researchers collected saliva samples from people before and after they received tattoos. They also took note of how many tattoos the participants received and how long the tattooing process took. Scientists then analyzed the samples and measured them for levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that lines some parts of our gastrointestinal and respiratory systems, as well as cortisol, a stress hormone that can suppress your body's immune response.

Here's what they discovered: People's levels of immunoglobulin A initially dropped significantly in those who were receiving their first tattoo (as expected, since cortisol is raised during the tattoo process, lowering a person's immune system), but those who have had tattoos before had less of an immediate immunoglobulin A decrease. As a result, researchers concluded, getting a tattoo makes your body stronger, immunologically speaking, over the long haul—and the more ink you have, the better your immune system.

But...why? Lead study author Christopher D. Lynn, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Alabama, says it's similar to how our body reacts to exercise. Working out stresses your body to some degree, but it also makes it stronger. The more we exercise, the more our body gets used to that stress and responds well to it, and it's the same with tattooing.

"When you stress yourself, either via exercise or a tattoo, cortisol suppresses immune response," explains Lynn. "As with exercise, if you keep it up, your body adjusts its systems or builds up its defenses in ways that accommodate the stress to the skin so that it can also deal with things like the common cold without getting all out of whack every time you get a new one."

While there are some health risks associated with getting a tattoo (adverse skin reactions, scarring, etc.), Lynn points out that this is actually a good outcome of getting inked. "There are still really interesting, important, and potentially good biological consequences of tattooing," he says.

Of course, you shouldn't (and wouldn't) go get a tattoo just to be able to better fend off the common cold, but it's nice to know that the ink you already have could be doing just that.

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March 11, 2016