When soccer star David Beckham had the names of his children tattooed on his skin, thousands rushed to copy him. But Beckham may not have been revealing his sensitive side after all 鈥� a study of US college freshmen suggests that tattoos make the skin less sensitive to touch.
Todd Allen at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley measured skin sensitivity in 54 people, 30 of whom had tattoos, using an aesthesiometer. This consists of two adjacent plastic points that can be moved further apart until a person senses them as two distinct points rather than one.
Allen tested participants鈥� reaction to the aesthesiometer on five body parts: the lower back, the back of the calf, the inner forearm, the tip of the index finger and a cheek.
Advertisement
He found no difference between the sensitivity of the unmarked skin of tattooed individuals and that of their 鈥渦ninked鈥� counterparts, but tattooed areas appeared less sensitive than clear skin. For example, the tattooed region on one person鈥檚 right leg was less sensitive than the corresponding tattoo-free area on the left leg.
There are many possible explanations, says Allen. The repeated stimulation of nerves during the tattooing process could desensitise them, or the ink injected into the skin may be interfering with the pressure of touch. Alternatively, the ink needles could cause direct damage to touch receptors. The findings were presented at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Atlanta, Georgia, last week.
