Tattoo

Thinking about getting a new tattoo? Maybe a nice 3-D double helix or an I-heart-Higgs Bosons. Well, you might wind up getting some mycobacteria with your body art. The Centers for Disease Control and [Prevention:Assumption] has turned up about two dozen cases of this [infection:disease] from contaminated tattoo ink.Last January, public health officials in western New York state [launched:released] an investigation after a tattoo [recipient:donor] reported persistent rash-itchy red bumps all over his new tat. A skin sample tested positive for Mycobacterium chelonae, a microbe common in tap water.A list of the tattoo artist's clients turned up another 19 cases of the rash, including 14 [confirmed:different] infections with the same bug. The tattoo parlor itself was clean, no bacteria in the water supply. But a bottle of premixed gray ink turned up positive.This gray wash, which is used to give tats a shaded, 3-D quality, was most likely contaminated during its manufacture and has since been recalled. But not before a handful of additional cases cropped up in elsewhere around the [country:state] .So if you're really itching to express yourself, a tattoo might indeed be just what the doctor ordered.