Anika Ruiz, dermatologist: “Never get a tattoo in these two places”

Nearly 40% of Spain’s population now has at least one tattoo, a figure that is even higher among people aged 18 to 37, according to data published by organizations such as the Union of Tattoo and Piercing Professionals, as well as commercial and tax records. In the USA it’s a little under that, with around a third of the population with at least one, over a fifth have more than one.

The tattoo industry continues to grow rapidly, confirming that body art is far from a passing trend.

Understanding the dangers of getting a tattoo

Getting tattooed remains fashionable, regardless of the fact that some people later come to regret those youthful impulses. Spur-of-the-moment decision or not, there are a number of medical recommendations that specialists advise keeping in mind before walking into a tattoo studio.

Dermatologist Anika Ruiz recently shared a short video on her TikTok account outlining the basic advice she believes is essential from a skin-health perspective. “I love tattoos, but as a dermatologist I would never recommend getting a tattoo over a mole,” she says at the outset. The main reason is that ink can conceal changes in a mole’s appearance, potentially making it harder to diagnose melanomas.

It is also not advisable to tattoo over irritated skin, areas with active infections, or skin that has been recently tanned. “Do not get tattooed over skin that has an active condition, such as psoriasis or vitiligo, because the tattoo can trigger more lesions,” Ruiz explains. If you have one of these conditions, she recommends consulting a dermatologist to assess whether tattooing might be possible in the future.

Finally, the dermatologist strongly warns against getting tattooed without first consulting a specialist if you are prone to hypertrophic scars or keloids, and she stresses that tattoos should never be done on fingernails. “Especially in the matrix area, where the nail grows from, because you can cause irreversible changes that may be mistaken for a malignant lesion,” she cautions.

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