Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives Anti TNF and other biological medications Tattoo and Remicade ???

Hi,
As previously stated by Kat, providing you use a reputable Tattooist, I think you'll be fine (my opinion only).
I myself am thinking about getting my first Tattoo, have been chewing it over for a while now, want to get my son's name on my inner forearm in Old English style lettering. Nothing to do with coming up to 40 soon Will I do it?? Not worried about the pain, just trying to make sure in my own mind it's what I really want. I start Remicade infusions again in two weeks time.
George.

Thanks for asking this, My husband and I wanted to get tattoos for our 10th in sept and now are thinking about the Enbrel. The lady we go to is very clean and we've never had issues/problems with any of our tattooists. If others have had it done without problem maybe I'll start thinking about it again! I'll talk to my dr as well.

Due to computer problems, I've hardly been able to get on the site. Interesting question, though.

I've never seriously considered getting a tattoo, but I think it a good idea to mention that every time I've had an MRI (several since Dx'd with AS-probably 5 times now), I've had to deal with the question of having tattoos prior to having the MRI. Apparently, some older inks have metals in them, which can be sucked into the magnet. There are lots of questions on the pre-MRI screening questionnaire, several dealing with issues of having been a metal worker, shrapnel bits and tattoos. I don't like to think of what can happen if a stray piece of metal embedded in the body gets ripped out by the MRI, but I'm sure it's quite painful. I googled a website once that showed photos of metal items stuck in the magnet once-the most memorable being a metal office chair that was accidentally moved into the MRI room-the magnet is always "on" and it took 3 or 4 strong men to pry that chair out of there.

Something to think about for sure; I'm guessing that most of us have had MRI's during our diagnostic journey, and my most recent one was to prove that the Enbrel I've been on was indeed working (they compared images with my pre-Enbrel MRI-I had to jump these hoops to receive funding through our Provincial Drug plan-Trillium).

I believe a lot of the inks are metal free these days, but who can be sure? My greatest concern would be risking infection with Hepatitis from unclean practices. I recall a famous celebrity contracted Hepatitis from tattoo-ing (Pamela Anderson Lee, I think?).

All the best...

Mythbusters proved that to be fake. I think there may have been one or two documented cases of burns from MRIs and tattoos, but i'm not sure.

I have lots of them and have never had a problem. I've also had lots of MRIs due to various health problems and have never had a problem. The only MRI issue I had was a pelvic MRI, I could feel my uterus moving inside along with the machine! It freaked me out a bit. I could also feel my eyes twiching with one for my head as well. The tech said it's rare but some can feel organs moving sometimes!

It's the same thing with IUDs They ask the question but none of the current IUDs will be bothered by an MRI according to both my gyn and MRI techs, although I still chickened out and don't have one.

As for tattoos yes I'm still interested, but I worry about sitting in a weird postion for hours. My tattooist is very nice and would be fine with breaks, but I still worry about getting sore.

Gardengirl - Did you ever get any of your tattoos while on tnf blockers?

I haven't heard from anyone re: getting one while actually being on these meds. I'm planning on getting one 4th of July weekend, I will be 5 weeks into my remicade treatment at that time. I'm nervous but my doc ok'd it so I'm putting my trust in her.....

Thanks!

Jen

Jen, I honestly think that if your doctor OKd it and if you're going to a reputable parlour that uses new needles and ink on every customer, you should be fine. Just keep the area as clean as possible and ask the artist about the best way to do that without wrecking the tat.

I would think, pharma company conspiracy theories aside, no doctor would OK a patient to do something that would be dangerous to their health.

Many hugs,

2 interesting sites:

http://www.simplyphysics.com/flying_objects.html#

http://tattoo.about.com/cs/tatfaq/a/mri_scan.htm

Apparently it's the older inks...

Best...

Sigrid!! Thank you for those! I love seeing urban myths explode.

I hope you are well.

Many hugs,

Sigrid,
Those are some great pics/links!
One of the research studies I was involved with years ago used MRI, so I spent a very long year screening patients and running them through MR brain scans.

I was using a 3.0 tesla MRI, so we had to be a bit more careful. The ones normally used in hospitals is 1.5T. I once accidently wore a toe ring into one of those 1.5T MR machines for a brain scan and was fine - didn't even dawn on me until I was getting dressed after the scan. oops.

We did have one woman wear an underwire bra into a machine, and it heated up, so we had to remove her - no issue there. Also, another had an undershirt on with tiny metallic threads that started heating up, so we removed her too. Can't say we had any problems with tattoos - we just made sure that all patients were aware to hit the alert button if they felt anything heating up. But all our patients were young women, so personally I haven't seen anyone with an older tattoo in an MR machine.

One other thing - we had alot of patients with metal fillings, and even braces, and they were all fine in the 1.5T MRI. So I'm pretty sure an older tattoo would probably be ok.

Jen, no tattoos since the new medications, but as others have said if your dr ok's it then don't worry.

I know plenty of people who have old military or prison or even homemade tattoos and not one has ever had MRI issues.

My MRI tech won't take anyones wedding ring off. He said he thinks the rings should stay where it is. I've felt it moving before but never burning.