A Polish man's decision to get a red-ink tattoo turned into a yearslong medical mystery that ultimately cost him every patch of skin containing the pigment. Roughly four months after receiving a flower tattoo featuring red ink on his right forearm, the man, said to be in his 30s, developed an itchy rash that spread over his arms and chest before progressing into erythroderma, a serious, full-body skin inflammation, report ScienceAlert and the Independent. Doctors initially suspected a tie to eczema, but their theory shifted when "eruption-like" changes appeared only in the red-inked areas whenever he stopped medication, according to a new case report from Wroclaw Medical University.
Over the next few years, the patient stopped being able to sweat, lost all of the hair on his scalp and torso, and developed vitiligo, which causes patches of skin to lose pigment. An allergy specialist eventually recommended surgically cutting out the red-inked sections of his tattooed skin. His symptoms began to ease only after all red pigment was removed and he was placed on immunosuppressive drugs. The man's hair has since regrown and the vitiligo has stopped spreading, but his sweat glands are largely destroyed, leaving him vulnerable to overheating and unable to exercise or work as before, the researchers say.
The scientists think something in the ink sent his immune system into overdrive, partly thanks to the fact that he had a known autoimmune condition. The Independent notes that dermatologists are especially baffled, though, about the link to sweating, suspecting that some of the compounds in the ink "may be antigens against the sweat gland," which would trigger an allergic reaction. They also warn in the study that "chronic allergic reactions to tattoos can occur months or even years after getting the tattoo."
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