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posted by mrpg on Tuesday March 13 2018, @06:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the mutants-have-no-tattoos dept.

Macrophage immune cells in the skin can capture pigments from tattoos and hold them in place, causing tattoos to persist even after new macrophages move in to deal with the contaminants:

[...] That's what French scientists observed from studying tatted mice. In their model of tattoo persistence [open, DOI: 10.1084/jem.20171608] [DX], published Tuesday in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, macrophages — immune cells that ingest foreign or unhealthy debris in the body — play a starring role. Targeting these cells, the authors suggested, might help improve tattoo removal procedures for people.

As a tattoo is given, macrophages descend to capture invading ink. Probably because the ink granules are too bulky for the microscopic Pac-Mans to break down, they hold onto the pigment, your body art shining through their bellies.

With time, these original macrophages die and release their pigments, which get vacuumed up by new macrophages, starting the cycle over, said Sandrine Henri, a researcher at the Immunology Center of Marseille-Luminy who led the study with her colleague Bernard Malissen.

[...] Jared Jagdeo, a dermatologist at the University of California, Davis, has also wondered whether macrophages impede tattoo removal by reabsorbing lasered ink particles. Since 2014, he has performed a laser removal procedure that uses anti-inflammatory ointment to suppress macrophages. "It makes a difference," he said, noting that he often removes tattoos in 10 or fewer treatments [instead of 20].


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:59AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:59AM (#651740)

    You can say the same thing about wearing clothing. Why are you ashamed of your body?

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @11:17AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @11:17AM (#651766)

    I guess the fact that you can get arrested for being in the public without clothes is quite a good reason to wear them.

    Also, during most of the year, I really appreciate the protection they give against the weather conditions. Indeed, for some time of the year, it's not just a question of comfort, but a question of survival to wear clothes whenever you leave the warmth of your home for a non-negligible amount of time.

    I never heard about anyone getting arrested due to a lack of tattoos. Nor have I ever heard anything about tattoos protecting against the weather conditions.