Hello!

The other day a report came out from a study by Lund University. It says that they found a connection between tattoos and lymphoma (lymph node cancer). You can read the full report here and watch the video clip .

I read the report a couple of times and also watched their self-produced video and I don't really understand...

Let's break down some numbers here first:

The study includes 11,905 people.
2938 of these have had lymphoma.
1398 of these have responded to a survey, of which 21% have one or more tattoos.

A control group (comparison group) of 4193 people was selected, none of whom had lymphoma. 18% of these were tattooed.

We then have three percentage points more tattooed people in the "Lymphoma group" than the control group!

Why do they say that 20% of tattooed people are at greater risk of lymphoma than those without tattoos?

Shouldn't it be 3%?

The study also concerns people who got lymphoma between 2007-2017. Assume that the tattoo ink caused the lymphoma. How long before the diagnosis did you get a tattoo? 10 years? 20 years? If we say 20 years, it is definitely about tattoos done between 1987-1997. What colors were used then? There was no regulation at all during this time. In fact, we did not have any regulation at all before 2012.

Now Associate Professor Christel Nielsen is standing and saying that we must put more pressure on tattoo ink manufacturers.
Has she been living under a rock for the past decade?

20% of all Swedes are said to have one or more tattoos. That's about 2 million people. Shouldn't we have a pretty clear link between tattoos and cancer by now?

It feels appropriate to quote* Jørgen Serup, professor, MD and senior physician at Bispebjerg Hospital's dermatology department, who has researched tattooing for over 60 years.

»The starting point is that tattoos cause cancer. But the fact is that there has not been a single case of cancer diagnosed where it can be said that it came because of a tattoo. So you regulate against a monster, which does not exist, but which is only an imagination.«
(*BT SOCIETY 17 Oct. 2021)

This is probably mostly about getting research money from the EU and the Swedish state to pay salaries in the search for a connection between tattoos and cancer.

There are already thousands of studies that find no connection whatsoever between tattoos and cancer.

Everything above is my highly personal opinion and I could be wrong.

But with that said, Lund University cannot say that they have the right to say that 20% of tattooed people are at greater risk of cancer. A zero report once again for the archives.


I want to emphasize that I am not trying to obscure or ridicule the research on the products we sell. I take everything very seriously, thoroughly reading, checking, and studying everything that comes my way.

Have a nice day!
/Mattias Lundberg