Women Lifestyle, Fashion, Health, Beauty and Personality

U.S. researchers have put out a new warning which states that permanent makeup can lead to disfigurement risk of “serious, long-term disfiguring reactions” for the 8 million women who use it. The warning comes from the CDC’s Masja Straetemans, PhD, and Martin Belson, MD, along with the FDA’s Linda Katz, MD, MPH. They have long known that allergic reactions can occur with such ink injections, women usually use this permanent makeup in the form of injections which can be used to enhance the eyebrows, eyelids, as well as lips.

The problem with it though is that the side effects are vast and apparent already. Masja Straetemans of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that the findings they have now show that permanent make up can result in “serious, long-term disfiguring reactions.
“Permanent makeup” ??? a kind of tattoo of the lips, eyelids and eyebrows ??? can for years disfigure patients who suffer allergic reactions. “Of the 92 women [included in the study], 89 had used ink shades from the specific company in at least one procedure after June 1, 2003, before the development of health problems,” the study’s lead author, Masja Straetemans, a senior epidemiologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany.
More than 9 out of 10 had swelling and tenderness, nearly that many complained of itching, and more than 4 out of 5 had bumps.

They found that the allergic reaction lasted anywhere from five months to more than three years. “In 68% the reactions had not healed at the time of the telephone interview,” said Straetemans. Like a regular tattoo, the permanent makeup procedure injects pigment into a deep layer of skin called the dermis, according to the American Academy of Micropigmentation (AAM). The epidermis is the layer of skin which is visible, and the one that constantly sheds and renews itself.

Straetemans’ team notes that the ink product line associated with most of the reactions reported by the patients they studied was recalled in September 2004. The researchers point out that they don’t know how many people have gotten permanent makeup, so it’s not clear if adverse events are rare or common in those people. Straetemans and colleagues ask consumers and medical professionals to report adverse reactions to permanent makeup procedures to the FDA.

The body sees the pigment as a foreign body and reacts to it, causing a chronic inflammatory reaction,” said Dr. Ellen Marmur, chief of dermatological surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. “The area gets swollen, bumpy and red. It looks like a bad, bumpy scar. It’s very unattractive.” Marmur said it’s impossible to know ahead of time who will have a reaction on the tattoo and who won’t, although most of the people interviewed for the study — 74 percent — had a history of allergies. Additionally, the study found that people with allergies took twice as long to heal, on average, Straetemans said.
Marmur suggests to reduce the risks and to ask for a list of ingredients in the inks to see if there’s anything likely to cause a reaction. Also, the patient should know beforehand whether that particular ink can be removed at a later date. Some red inks, which could be used in a lipstick tattoo, turn black and become permanent if they’re exposed to the lasers commonly used to remove tattoos, she said.