纹身墨水如何危及美国人健康？(上)

Tattoos in early 20th century America were largely limited to sailors and circus performers.

在20世纪初的美国，纹身主要限于水手和马戏团演员。

But today, there's hardly a major celebrity who isn't inked. And it's not just the famous.

但是今天，几乎没有一个重要名人不纹身。不仅仅是名人。

When the Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 8,500 Americans this summer, 32 percent said they had at least one tattoo and 22 percent said they had more than one.

皮尤研究中心今年夏天对近8500名美国人进行了调查，结果显示，32%的人表示他们有一个纹身，22%的人表示他们不止有一个纹身。

By one estimate, tattooing in America is a one and a half billion dollar industry.

据估计，纹身在美国是一个价值15亿美元的产业。

But while all 50 states and the District of Columbia required tattoo artists to have a license, tattoo ink is totally unregulated in the United States, although the Food and Drug Administration has recently proposed guidelines.

虽然50个州和哥伦比亚特区都要求纹身师持有执照，但纹身墨水在美国完全不受监管，尽管美国食品和药物管理局最近提出了相关指导方针。

Dr. Thomas Rohrer is a dermatologic surgeon and a private practice in the Boston suburbs and he's the former president of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery.

托马斯·罗勒博士是一名皮肤外科医生，在波士顿郊区开了一家私人诊所，他曾担任过美国皮肤外科学会的主席。

Dr. Rohrer, how is tattooing done? And what are the risks from that process?

罗勒医生，纹身是怎么刺的？这个过程的风险是什么?

Sure, well, tattooing can be done in a couple of different ways.

当然，纹身有几种不同的方式。

One very crudely, you can put anything into the skin with ink on it and create a little deposit and create some color there. So an amateur tattoo.

一种是相当粗糙的纹法，你可以把任何东西放到皮肤上，在上面涂上墨水，形成一点沉淀，再创造一些颜色。这是一种业余的纹身。

But the professionals use a machine that has a whole bunch of needles in it kind of like a sewing machine that goes in and out of the skin and deposits ink of different colors at different depths to give you a more colorful picture.

不过，专业人士使用的是一种内置一大堆针的机器，有点像缝纫机，可以从皮肤里进出，不同深度沉积的墨水颜色也不同，为你绘制一个更丰富多彩的图案。

So the risks for tattoos, I guess, start initially with infection.

我认为纹身的风险首先是从感染开始的。

All right, so since that tattoo needle or whatever device they're using to get into the skin has to penetrate the skin, you can potentially inject some bacteria or virus into the skin and then cause a problem.

好吧，既然刺青针，或者用于刺入皮肤的任何设备都要穿透皮肤，那么，你可能会把一些细菌或病毒注射到皮肤里，随后引起问题。

So there have been certainly a number of cases of bacterial infections, or viral infections, including hepatitis.

肯定存在一些包括肝炎在内的细菌感染或病毒感染的病例。

And then down the road, what happens with the ink, there can also be problems, some of those inks, some people are allergic to in this country and around the world.

一段时间之后，墨水会发生什么，这也会有问题。这个国家以及世界各地的一些人可能会对这些墨水过敏。

And they have these anything from a mild to a really massive allergic reaction to the ink that's gone into their skin, which causes burning, itching, sometimes ulceration and scarring with that.

他们对进入皮肤的墨水有从轻微到严重的过敏反应，会引起灼烧、瘙痒，有时还会出现溃疡，留下疤痕。

One of the other issues we've been seeing with the tattoo, particularly when people get a big tattoo, like a sleeve covering a large area is they cover a good portion of their skin.

我们看到的另一个关于纹身的问题是，特别是当人们纹了一个巨大的纹身，比如一个覆盖很大面积的袖子纹身时，它们会覆盖很大一部分皮肤。

So if that patient were to develop melanoma in that area, it's very difficult for the patient to see that and for the physician to see it.

如果患者在那个部位长了黑瘤，患者和医生都很难发现。

There also been cases of tattoos reacting when someone goes for an MRI, which can be an issue.

还有一些情况是，当纹身的人去做核磁共振检查时，纹身会有反应，这可能是个问题。

And lastly, there's some question about some of these tattoos potentially leading to cancer down the road.

最后，有些纹身可能会在将来某个时候导致癌症，这是一个问题。