It?s something you?ve been wanting to get for a while and you?ve finally built up the courage to do it. But now you?re pregnant, and you don?t know if it?s safe to get a tattoo or if you should hold off.
It?s best to wait to get your tattoo, says Jimmy Belotte, an attending physician in the division of general OB/GYN at Montefiore Health System and an associate professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York.
Belotte says one of the main concerns is the risk of you (and potentially your baby) developing an infectious disease like Hepatitis B or C, or even HIV. These viral infections can be transmitted when tainted blood enters the bloodstream of an otherwise healthy person. This can happen if non-sterile needles are used for tattooing. While studies have shown there?s a very low risk of developing these diseases if you get a tattoo at a licensed facility, there is still a chance. And Belotte says the chances of passing an infectious disease you get during pregnancy on to your baby are generally low, but they do vary for every person. You need to take into consideration the prevalence of the specific infection in that community, the individual?s vaccination records and the tattoo parlor?s quality-control measures, he explains. He also recommends you look at the tattoo shop?s violations or citations from the health department.
According to the American Pregnancy Association, it is possible that chemicals in the tattoo dye may also affect a baby?s devel...