Bacteriological and fungal survey of commercial tattoo inks used in daily practice in a tattoo parlour.

摘要

The cutaneous inoculation of micro-organisms, including virus, bacteria, environmental mycobacteria and fungi, is one of the risks related to tattooing. Inoculation may occur through the use of contaminated inks or instruments (electric tattoo machine and needles) or the lack of hygiene during the procedure or, secondarily, during the healing process. The aim of the present study was to determine whether micro-organisms are present in inks currently used by tattooists in their daily practice. A professional French tattooist provided commercial tattoo inks from bottles that had already been opened and were currently being used in her tattoo parlour. The inks were supplied in stock bottles (Fig. 1). A small sample of each ink was drawn into a sterile recipient by one of us (NK). Microbiological investigations were conducted over a 12-week period to search for bacteria using Trypticase soy (for Gram+) and MacConkey (for Gram-) agar and to isolate fungal and mycobacterial species using, respectively, blood-chocolate agar and both solid (Lowenstein-Jensen) and liquid media (BacT/ ALERT 3D system, bioMerieux, France).