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Russian roulette or safe bet?

ENLIGHTENED STATES THAT HAVE OUTLAWED TATTOOING:

Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Vermont.


Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, thinks most people have no idea what they're getting into when they get tattoos at commercial salons.

Haley thinks that up to 40 percent of people with HCV got the disease through tattoos.

"It's Russian roulette when you send your child in there to get a tattoo -- you have no idea if the chamber is loaded," says Haley, who has no faith in average people reporting unclean establishments.

"Think of what a fallacy that is -- they (the city) only inspect if there's a complaint. How would a patron know if there's a problem?" Haley asks. "It might look spic and span, the guy might be wearing gloves, but these people are artists. They're not doctors or nurses."

A study by Haley indicated that commercial tattoos might be responsible for a higher rate of HCV infections than previously thought. The study also concluded that:


Of the 626 patients included in the study, 113 had one or more tattoos, and of those, 22.1 percent had HCV.


Only 18 patients (or 3.5 percent) of those without a tattoo had HCV.


Of those with tattoos and HCV, few had histories of drug use or blood transfusion.


Those who have several or large tattoos (requiring numerous visits) are more likely to have HCV.


Tattoos acquired in commercial establishments accounted for more than twice the number of HCV infections as intravenous drug use, and that those who were tattooed in a commercial parlor were nine times more likely to be infected with HCV than those who didn't have tattoos.

The study, published in 2001, is controversial in that it turns on its ear everything the CDC says about the risk of HCV infection via tattoos. But Haley contends that his findings weren't even slightly surprising.

"There's already a substantial literature in the field ... at least half a dozen studies showing that tattooing transmits hepatitis B and C," says Haley, who forwarded copies of those studies to the P-I. "We were confirming what was already known."