Tattooing is associated with a higher risk of hepatitis C,
Canadian researchers found in a newly published review and meta-
analysis of studies from 30 countries. Advertisement Individuals
with multiple tattoos over large swaths of skin were at a higher
risk of contracting hepatitis C, said lead author Dr. Siavash
Jafari of the University of British Columbia (UBC). Bigger
tattoos require more punctures for injecting indelible ink and
have a higher chance of infection from contaminated needles, he
said. Tattoo devices pierce the skin 80 to 150 times per second
during the application of a design. Of 124 studies included from
a comprehensive search of case-control, cohort or cross-
sectional studies published prior to November 2008, 83 were
included in the meta-analysis. "The pooled odds ratio (OR) and
95 percent confidence interval (CI) of the association of
tattooing and hepatitis C from all studies was 2.74
(2.38-3.15)," Jafari and colleagues reported. "In a subgroup
analysis we found the strongest association