Introduction/ objectives

Over the last few decades getting tattoos has been progressively better accepted by society in most countries; thus, the number of establishments and professionals in the area has also increased. However, since it is a recent activity and with heterogeneous norms/ licensing, these individuals often escape the evaluation by Occupational Health. The literature on this subject is scarce. This review was intended to characterize the profession of tattoo artist with regard to: vocational training; main risk factors/ occupational risks; more prevalent semiology and associated major diseases; work accidents; collective/ individual protection measures adopted and associated legislation.

Methodology

This is a Scoping Review, initiated through a survey conducted in April 2019 in the databases "CINALH plus with full text, Medline with full text, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Methodology Register, Nursing and Allied Health Collection: Comprehensive, MedicLatina, Academic Search Ultimate, Science Direct, Web of Science, SCOPUS and RCAAP.

Content

In most countries, a person can work in the area without having specific qualifications; the products can be purchased via internet and the rules for opening the establishment vary locally. Given the absence of norms that parameterize the necessary qualifications to exercise, the same happens in the process of teaching in this sector.

The main occupational risks/ risk factors are the quimical and biological agents, vibrations, noise, forced/ maintained postures, repetitive movements, visual effort, handling needles and sharps and prolonged shifts.

Musculoskeletal semiology is very prevalent.

Discussion/ Conclusions/ Limitations/ Projects for the Future

The risk factors are very similar to other professional sectors, such as dental medicine, which has already been studied in detail.

Most of the few published documents on Tattoo Artists have a simplistic methodology and the samples are small.

In addition, the absence of uniform labor standards and licensing undermines safe work. It would be very important that these arise and be progressively perfected. In a post-implementation phase, it would be desirable to have an institution with the capacity and authority to monitor compliance and to require the correction of identified problems.

Similarly, it would also be interesting if the education process were also formalized and compulsory, perhaps starting at a technical level and evolving (if the progression of the sector allows or requires), to other degree.

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