Permanent Makeup May Have Risks

Permanent makeup may run the risk of "serious,
long-term disfiguring reactions," experts write in tomorrow's edition of
The New England Journal of Medicine.

The warning comes from the CDC's Masja Straetemans, PhD, and Martin Belson,
MD, along with the FDA's Linda Katz, MD, MPH.

In a brief letter to the journal, Straetemans and colleagues report that the
FDA has gotten 150 reports since 2003 of adverse reactions in people who got
permanent makeup.

Straetemans' team identified 101 patients with such complaints and
interviewed 92 of them.

The patients' most common reactions to their permanent makeup were
tenderness, swelling, and bumps in the areas where the permanent makeup was
applied.

Two thirds of the patients still had symptoms at the time of the interview.
Symptoms lasted from five months to more than three years, on average. Healing
happened faster in those with no history of allergies.

The researchers checked the medical records of 33 of the patients. Allergic
reactions and skin nodules called granulomas were the most common
diagnoses.

Background information on the FDA's web site states that "although the
FDA has received numerous reports of allergic reactions to certain shades of
ink in permanent makeup, marketed by a particular manufacturer, reports of
allergic reactions to tattoo pigments have been rare. However, when they happen
they may be particularly troublesome because the pigments can be hard to
remove. Occasionally, people may develop an allergic reaction to tattoos they
have had for years."

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.

File those reports with the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied
Nutrition Adverse Events Reporting System by phone at 301-436-2405 or by e-mail
at caers@csfan.fda.gov.

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