Beware of getting a tattoo if your immune system isn't up to scratch, doctors warn

Getting a tattoo may have some unexpected complications if your immune system isn't up to scratch, warn doctors in the journal BMJ Case Reports. The warning comes after they treated a woman for chronic pain in her left hip, knee and thigh some months after she had been tattooed. She had been taking drugs to dampen down her immune system for several years after receiving a double lung transplant in 2009. Her right leg had been tattooed several years earlier, with no ill effects, and she decided to have another on her left thigh. Immediately after this one, she experienced mild skin irritation, which is not unusual, explain the authors. But 9 days later, she developed pain in her left knee and thigh. Her symptoms were so severe that she needed strong painkillers. Although her symptoms eased, they were still troubling her 10 months later. So she was referred to a rheumatology clinic, where she was tested for various conditions, the results of which all came back negative. But a biopsy of her thigh muscle revealed that she had inflammatory myopathy--chronic muscle inflammation. This is often accompanied by muscle weakness and pain. In many cases, the cause of this isn't known, and it…