Skin tumors arising in tattoos: coincidental or upcoming public health issue?

摘要

Permanent tattooing has gained tremendous popularity in the past 20 years among the western population, especially the young [l]. Although this practice has been performed since the beginning of mankind by almost all civilizations, the first complications were only reported at the end of the 19th Century [2]. Various complications may occur after tattooing: bacterial and viral infections; hypersensitivity reaction to pigments and dyes; and localization of various dermatoses by a Koebner phenomenon [3]. For the last 20 years, we have also witnessed an increase in reports of cutaneous tumors developing within tattoos [4]. Thus, cases of melanoma [4], basal cell carcinoma (BCC) [4] and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) [5-7] have been reported. In addition, anecdotal cases of cutaneous lymphoma over pseu-dolymphoma [8], dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans [9] and leiomyosarcoma have been described [io]. Lastly, other 'benign' SCC-like lesions, such as pseudo-epi-theliomatous hyperplasia (PH) [7,n-i3] and keratoacanthomas (KAs) [14-20] may develop. The latter are borderline lesions, the true malignancy of which is still a matter of debate between dermatologists and pathologists. Interestingly, from a pathophysiological point of view, we can provide as many arguments in favor of a potential carcinogenic risk related to tattoos as we can against such a hypothesis.