I recently removed the wisdom teeth from a 25 year old female patient with multiple bright colored tattoos. Her recovery time, compared with similar impacted wisdom tooth cases, age, health, etc. was slower. I’d seen a similar slow pace of recovery in another patient who also has tattoos.

Considering that tattoo ink contains many heavy metals like lead, arsenic, beryllium, chromium and others, and that metal toxicity is a factor in immune function, I suspected my two tattooed patients’ slower recovery could be connected to their tattoos.

In October, the FDA decided to launch a study to determine the connection between tattoo dyes and health risks. We’ll look out for those results.

Meanwhile, if you or any of your children are considering tattoos, I urge you to research any health risks not only of the needles used, but the permanent affect of putting toxic metals into your system and how that could affect your immunity.