Is it Safe to Get a Tattoo?

by Pattie Hughes | More from this Blogger

Tattoos have been around for thousands of years. Recently, tattoos have had a resurgence in popularity. You may be wondering if it is safe to get a tattoo when you are pregnant. While some women may have gotten tattoos without incident, most doctors and tattoo artists will tell you to wait.

There is some risk associated with getting a tattoo during pregnancy. The biggest risk is that you can contract an infection during the tattoo procedure. The most worrisome of these infections is hepatitis or HIV. Although the risk is small, especially with proper sterilization techniques, there is some risk involved in the procedure.

Many tattoo artists won't do a tattoo for a client that is pregnant. There are a few reasons for this. In some cases, people get dizzy or faint when they are getting a tattoo. The tattoo artist will be concerned about injury to the mother or the baby if she were to get dizzy and fall during or immediately after the tattoo.

Your doctor may object to the idea as well. Health care providers are likely to have concerns about the ink that is used in tattoos. There have been no studies on the safety of the ink on a developing fetus. The risk associated with the ink being absorbed into the body is not known. For this reason, many doctors would prefer to err on the side of caution and will advise against it.

There are cosmetic reasons to wait as well. We all gain weight during pregnancy. This results in the skin stretching. After the baby is born and your body goes back to its original shape, or something resembling your former body, the skin will no longer be stretched. This can adversely affect the look of the tattoo. If you wait until the baby is born and you lose the weight, the results will be better. Since you keep a tattoo forever, you want it to turn out well.

The permanence of a tattoo is another good reason to wait. You want to make sure that the tattoo you get is one you will like for the rest of your life. Waiting until after the baby is born gives you more time to decide if this is what you really want. You may decide to skip it, or you may go for it and add something that represents your baby, such as a name or birthday. You'll need to wait until the baby is here for that information.

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Learn more about Pattie Hughes

Pattie Hughes is a freelance writer and mother of four young children. She and her husband have been married since 1992. Pattie holds a degree in Elementary Education from Florida Atlantic University.

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