See the article on WebMD here.

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I was reminded of it today when I went to see my doctor for one of my regular checkups.  Along with the usual discussions about my health, she asked me about my tattoos, which she’s seen many times before.  This time, however, she did something different.  She pulled up a screen on the computer, and typed in a description of each tattoo.

Why?  Because, she explained, someday that description might help someone to identify me.

I’d never considered that before.  And I think it’s a great idea.  If your doctor hasn’t included a description of your body art in your medical file, ask her or him to do it.  The one certain thing in life is uncertainty, and the more information we make available to others who might find us and not know who we are, the better.

Oh, and for you youngsters out there, that was the opening from “Ben Casey.”  I liked Dr. Kildare better, myself. 

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The last tattoo was slow to heal, but I believe that was more due to a reaction to the red ink. Diabetics don’t heal as quickly as other people, and the slow healing can be even slower if the person’s blood sugar isn’t under good control. It’s not a complete barrier to getting inked, but it’s something to take into consideration. Slower healing means more chance of infection, scarring, and generalized messing-things-up.

This week I started on insulin at bedtime because my blood sugar was NOT under good control. Something went haywire somewhere over the last six months and I was getting higher and higher readings and having little success getting back to business-as-usual with my former combination of diet, exercise, and oral medication. Many Type 2′s think of going on insulin as somehow having failed. I don’t see it that way. It’s a lot easier to adjust the dosage of insulin than it is to try to monkey around with oral meds. I mean, how many times can you break a pill before you’ve got nothing but dust?

As I watched my readings get higher and higher I knew that it would be a very bad idea for me to get any more tattoos. High readings mean slow healing, and since I’m leaning very strongly toward having a more-visible tattoo next time (if there is a next time) I definitely do not want to have something that will swell, itch, weep, crust, and look like space-alien skin for months. So I have even more incentive to get the insulin dose right and keep things in equilibrium.

Doing a Google search on “tattoo diabetic” brings up a lot of interesting articles including several on the concept of having your Medic Alert information tattooed on your skin so you won’t have to wear a tag. Of course, if your medical condition makes tattoos a bad idea in the first place…. um, all in all, I’d rather just keep wearing my removable tag.

Do you have health issues that make you wary of getting more ink?

photo credit: mcbill

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Nickel, a common culprit

Today’s newsletter dealt with the fact that allergy to nickel is becoming more and more common in the USA today. A sensitivity to nickel most often causes a raised, itchy skin rash, which can be quite severe. People can go along for years, coming in contact with nickel through their jewelry, and then all of a sudden they’ve got a rash under their treasured watch or ring or earrings like you wouldn’t believe. It can also, as I can attest, happen if you’ve got bare skin up against the inside of the snap in your jeans.

I got sensitized to nickel when I got my ears pierced for the first time 40 years ago. In those days, you just bought gold earrings of some kind and put them in while the piercings were healing and hoped for the best. My starter earrings weren’t that good. I got a crusty rash while the holes were healing (and had the unenviable task of pulling those first earrings out while the holes were only partway healed, and replacing them with other earrings that I had to sterilize myself as best I could). Forever after, I have had a reaction to nickel in anything that touches my skin for any length of time. (Clear nail polish makes a reasonable coating for earrings that you just can’t give up.)

Related metal allergens in tattoo ink

What I hadn’t known, and found most interesting, is that people with nickel sensitivity may also show a reaction to some kinds of tattoo ink. It is most common with green and blue inks, which contain chromium and cobalt. So if your watch band drives you nuts, you might have problems with your tattoos as well.

Just something to think about. We decorated people have to watch out for our health.

I’ve just summarized the article briefly, here, so if you want to read more I’d suggest checking out the Bottom Line Secrets Daily Health News web site.

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