在人类淋巴结中发现了刺青针上的金属颗粒

It's not just ink particles and contaminants that can travel through your body when you get tattooed. Researchers have now found that metal nanoparticles from the tattooing needles can get left behind, too.

当你纹身时，不仅仅是墨水颗粒和污染物会穿过你的身体。研究人员现在发现，纹身针上的金属纳米粒子也会被遗留下来。

These particles - shed from the needles used to puncture your skin and deposit the ink - include nickel and chromium, which are allergens. So they could induce allergic responses previously attributed only to the inks.

这些微粒——从用于刺穿皮肤和沉积墨水的针头中释放出来的——包括镍和铬，它们是过敏原。因此，它们能引发过敏反应，而此前人们认为过敏反应只与油墨有关。
"There is more to tattoos than meets the eye," said environmental scientist Hiram Castilla of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF).

欧洲同步辐射设施(ESRF)的环境科学家HiramCastilla说：“纹身的含义远不止表面现象。”

"It is not only about the cleanliness of the parlour, the sterilisation of the equipment or even about the pigments. Now we find that the needle wear also has an impact in your body."

“这不仅涉及操作室的清洁、设备的消毒，甚至颜料的安全。现在我们发现纹身针自身对身体也有影响。”

Although we humans have been decorating our bodies with pigment deposited under the epidermis for thousands of years, little research has been done on what effect that ink has on our bodies.

虽然几千年来我们人类一直用表皮下沉积的色素来装饰我们的身体，但是很少有人研究墨水对我们身体的影响。

Most of it does stay put, since the ink particles are too big for our immune systems to break down. But as ESRF scientists discovered last year, a very small amount of the minutest particles do actually get removed by the immune system, moving through the body before being deposited in the lymph nodes.

因为墨水颗粒太大，我们的免疫系统无法分解，所以大多数墨水确实会停留在原处。但是，正如ESRF科学家去年发现的那样，免疫系统确实会清除非常少量的微小颗粒，在进入淋巴结之前，它们会在体内移动。

It's well known that tattoos can cause adverse reactions in some people. Sometimes the host will have an allergic reaction, or develop hypersensitivity at the site of the tattoo. Sometimes, tattoo pigments in the body can later cause symptoms similar to those of lymphoma and melanoma.

众所周知，纹身会引起一些人的不良反应。有时宿主会有过敏反应，或在纹身部位产生过敏反应。有时候，身体上的纹身色素会导致类似淋巴瘤和黑色素瘤的症状。

In this case, the team was primarily investigating the allergens chromium and nickel, as well as iron. Their previous research turned up nanoparticles of the metals in their subjects' lymph nodes, so they were trying to find the link between these metals and the pigments used in tattoo inks.

在这个案例中，研究小组主要研究了铬、镍以及铁等过敏原。他们之前的研究在受试者的淋巴结中发现了这种金属的纳米颗粒，因此他们试图找到这些金属与纹身墨水中使用的色素之间的联系。

Nanoparticles are potentially more dangerous than larger particles, because they have more surface area per volume - which means they're potentially more efficient at releasing toxic elements.

纳米颗粒比大颗粒更危险，因为它们每体积的表面积更大——这意味着它们释放有毒元素的效率可能更高。

"After studying several human tissue samples and finding metallic components, we realised that there must be something else," said Ines Schreiver of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment.

德国联邦风险评估研究所的InesSchreiver说：“在研究了几个人体组织样本并发现了金属成分之后，我们意识到肯定还有别的东西。”

"We also tested around 50 ink samples without finding such metal particles and made sure that we hadn't contaminated the samples during sample preparation. Then we thought of testing the needle and that was our 'eureka' moment."

“我们还测试了大约50个墨水样品，没有发现这种金属颗粒，并确保在样品制备过程中没有污染样品。然后我们想到测试针，那是我们的“发现”时刻。”

You can see how brutal the tattooing process looks up close in this awesome slow-motion footage from Smarter Every Day.

在这段来自《聪明的每一天》的慢镜头中，你可以近距离看到纹身过程有多残忍。

Synchrotron nano-X-ray fluorescence and nano-X-ray absorption showed that inks containing titanium dioxide - a white pigment often used to brighten coloured inks - are particular contributors to the problem.

同步加速器纳米x射线荧光和纳米x射线吸收表明，含有二氧化钛的油墨是造成这一问题的主要原因。二氧化钛是一种白色颜料，经常用于使彩色油墨变亮。

The hard, dense titanium dioxide acts as a harsh abrasive that scrubs away particles of the metal needle, a process that does not occur when the artist uses softer carbon black ink.

坚硬、致密的二氧化钛就像一种粗糙的磨料，能把金属针上的颗粒磨掉，而当艺术家使用较软的炭黑墨水时，这一过程是不会发生的。

Scanning electron microscopy of nine needles was performed, too. Three were scanned before use, three were scanned after tattooing carbon black ink on pigskin, and three were scanned after tattooing with titanium dioxide ink on pigskin.

针对9根针进行了扫描电镜观察。其中3只在使用前进行扫描，3只在猪皮上用炭黑墨水纹身后进行扫描，3只在猪皮上用二氧化钛墨水纹身后进行扫描。
You can clearly see below that the titanium dioxide needles are a lot more worn than the carbon black ones.

你可以清楚地看到，下面的二氧化钛针比碳黑针磨损得多。

"It is beyond doubt that the metal particles derive from the tattoo needle as result of pure mechanical grinding," said Bernhard Hesse of the ESRF.

ESRF的Bernhard Hesse说：“毫无疑问，纹身针中的金属颗粒是纯机械研磨的结果。”

It's the first time researchers have demonstrated that this is occurring, so we don't yet know what this discovery might mean in health terms. Further research will be needed to determine what impact needle nanoparticles are having when it comes to adverse reactions that can arise from tattoos.

这是研究人员首次证实这种情况的发生，所以我们还不知道这一发现对健康意味着什么。还需要进一步的研究来确定纳米针对纹身可能产生的不良反应有什么影响。

As always, we recommend that you do your homework before getting inked - find a reputable studio and, if you can, find out which inks they use so you can check the ingredients for yourself.

和往常一样，我们建议你在纹身之前做足功课——找一家信誉良好的工作室，如果可以的话，找出他们使用的是哪种墨水，这样你就可以自己检查成分了。

The team's research has been published in Particle and Fibre Toxicology.

该小组的研究已经发表在《粒子和纤维毒理学》上。