Tattoo Therapeutics: How Tattoos Have The Potential To Successfully Deliver Therapeutics Through The Skin And May Boost Immune Function
By Sidra Lackey
CREDIT: ANNAMARIA VASCO
“Tattoo therapeutics deliver medicine more than skin deep,” by Stephanie DeMarco, PhD in a recent scientific article from Drug Discovery News (DNN), revealed that researchers in fields from dermatology to medical anthropology are investigating tattoos as therapeutic in nature and studying how they may boost immune function.
Ötzi, or the Iceman, the 5,300-year-old mummy (the oldest example of a tattooed human to date) has several tattoos decorating his body consisting of lines and crosses (most are in locations that would have been covered by his clothes) located at the base of his spine, ankles, and around his knees. Researchers hypothesize that his tattoos were likely therapeutic in nature. The fact that almost all of his tattoos line up with traditional acupuncture points to relieve pain supports this theory, DeMarco reported.
Multiple indigenous groups around the world have traditions of tattoos on acupuncture points. Lars Krutak, a tattoo anthropologist at the Museum of International Folk Art in New Mexico, has documented medicinal tattoo practices in more than 30 cultures, from the Ainu in Japan, the Berber in Morocco, to the Chippewa in the United States and Canada. The practice of tattooing at acupuncture points carries on around the world today, and has even ventured into the professional acupuncture space, DeMarco shared.
The process of inserting thin needles into the skin, an acupuncturist induces a microtrauma, which elicits a localized inflammatory response to promote healing. Douglas Wingate is an acupuncturist at Oregon Health and Science University and a licensed tattoo artist who found that, “tattooing essentially stimulates the acupuncture point to a greater degree than standard acupuncture does.” Wingate found that, “placing a tattoo at an acupuncture point is about equivalent to ten acupuncture treatments at that site,” which is often enough to, “resolve someone’s pain.” Patients of Wingate can pick whatever kind of tattoo they want, “as long as it fits over the specific acupuncture point to be treated.”
How multiple tattoos influence the body’s stress and immune responses, remains an open question, DeMarco stated. Christopher Lynn, a medical anthropologist at the University of Alabama said, “Cultures around the world see tattooing as a way to toughen up the body or make it stronger, and I think of that very biologically. I want to understand how that health happens… How can your cultural practice and, ironically, this injury to your body make you healthier?”
Lynn and his team sampled saliva from people with different levels of tattoo experience to investigate the connection between tattooing and the immune system. They measured, “cortisol, an immunosuppressant, and immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibody levels just before and immediately after people got a tattoo. Cortisol levels in the blood peak in response to stress, which triggers the dampening of the immune system, indicated by a drop in IgA levels.” Lynn and his team reported that, “people with little tattoo experience had decreased IgA levels after their tattoos, indicating a stress-induced suppression of the immune system. For people with lots of tattoo experience, however, the researchers saw an increase in IgA levels immediately after the tattoo, indicating that there was no immune suppression in frequent tattoo-getters.”
The research results favors frequent tattoo-getters, but Lynn does not recommend people go out and get a tattoo, “for the sole purpose of boosting their immune systems.” “We're trying to understand not just the on-off switch, but the interaction of mechanisms within physiology,” explained Lynn. He is also very interested in uncovering how the cultural meaning of a tattoo influences an individual’s immune response. Lynn and his team are studying, “how the levels of these biomarkers change in a person undergoing a very painful and long tattoo experience such as the traditional Samoan pe’a. This tattoo uses the hand tapping tattooing technique, which relies on handheld tools to pierce and transfer the ink into the skin. Hand tapping is more painful than a tattoo applied with a typical electric tattoo machine, and the pe'a can take as many as 20 to 30 hours to complete. The final tattoo covers the entire lower torso and thighs. These large traditional tattoos also hold important cultural significance for the wearer.”
“It's one thing to go and get a tattoo because it's cool and you'll have an immune response. It's another thing altogether to get a tattoo that says, ‘I am of service to my community, and I am wearing something that my ancestors have worn for at least 1000 years. And it's extraordinarily visible and very painful,’” Lynn remarked. “There's an added psychological benefit to that, and that's what I'm trying to piece together now.”