Tattoos among athletes: a matter of concern?

No effect of tattoos on local sweat concentrations of select cytokines, cortisol, glucose, blood urea nitrogen, or lactate during exercise

Due to growing interest in the investigation of exercise induced sweat biomarkers to assess an individual's health and the increasing prevalence of tattoos in the world's population, investigators sought to determine whether local sweat concentrations and excretion rates of epidermal growth factor (EGF), interleukin (IL) -1α, IL-6, IL-8, cortisol, glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and lactate differ between tattooed and contralateral non-tattooed skin during exercise. Sixteen recreational exercisers [female (50%)] (age = 25-48 years) with ≥ 1 unilateral permanent tattoo [median tattoo age = 6 years, IQR = 5] on the arm/torso completed an outdoor group fitness session. There were no significant differences between tattooed and non-tattooed skin for sweat EGF, IL-1α, IL-8, cortisol, glucose, BUN, or lactate concentrations. There were no significant differences between tattooed and non-tattooed skin for sweat EGF, IL-1α, IL-8, cortisol, glucose, BUN, or lactate excretion rate. Findings suggest that permanent tattoos older than 1 year may not impact local sweat EGF, IL-1α, IL-8, cortisol, glucose, BUN, and lactate concentrations or excretion rates during exercise.Clinical trial identifier NCT04920266 was registered on June 9, 2021.

Multiple regression analyses to determine the effect of sweating rate and tattoo characteristics on sweat outcome measures during exercise

Purpose

To compare local sweating rate (LSR) and local sweat sodium ([Na⁺]), chloride ([Cl⁻]), and potassium ([K⁺]) concentrations of tattooed skin and contralateral non-tattooed skin during exercise.

Methods

Thirty-three recreational exercisers (17 men, 16 women) with ≥ 1 unilateral permanent tattoo on the torso/arms were tested during cycling, running, or fitness sessions (26 ± 4 °C and 54 ± 13% relative humidity). Forty-eight tattoos with a range of ink colors, ages (3 weeks to 20 years), and densities (10–100%) were included. Before exercise, the skin was cleaned with alcohol and patches (3 M Tegaderm + Pad) were placed on the tattooed and contralateral non-tattooed skin. LSR was calculated from sweat mass (0.80 ± 0.31 g), patch surface area (11.9 cm²), and duration (62 ± 14 min). Sweat [Na⁺], [Cl⁻], and [K⁺] were measured via ion chromatography.

Results

Based on the analysis of variance results, there were no differences between tattooed and non-tattooed skin for LSR (1.16 ± 0.52 vs. 1.12 ± 0.53 mg/cm²/min; p = 0.51), sweat [Na⁺] (60.2 ± 23.5 vs. 58.5 ± 22.7 mmol/L; p = 0.27), sweat [Cl⁻] (52.1 ± 22.4 vs. 50.6 ± 22.0 mmol/L; p = 0.31), or sweat [K⁺] (5.8 ± 1.6 vs. 5.9 ± 1.4 mmol/L; p = 0.31). Multiple regression analyses suggested that younger tattoos were associated with higher sweat [Na⁺] (p = 0.045) and colorful tattoos were associated with higher sweat [Cl⁻] (p = 0.04) compared with contralateral non-tattooed skin. Otherwise, there were no effects of LSR or tattoo characteristics on regression models for LSR or sweat electrolyte concentrations.

Conclusion

There were no effects of tattoos on LSR and sweat [K⁺] during exercise-induced sweating, but tattoo age and color had small effects on sweat [Na⁺] and sweat [Cl⁻], respectively.

Clinical trial identifiers

NCT04240951 was registered on January 27, 2020 and NCT04920266 was registered on June 9, 2021.