Infection
Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS are two of many diseases that may be passed along by a dirty needle. Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection. HIV/AIDS is a life-threatening disease that prevents your body from fighting off other infections. Both hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS can be passed along through bodily fluids. This means that you can catch these diseases if someone uses a dirty needle. It also means that you can pass these diseases along to your baby while you're pregnant.

If you do get a tattoo:

• Your tattoo artist should be registered and follow all safety guidelines.
• The tattoo parlor should have a machine, called an autoclave, to sterilize the tattoo instruments.
• The parlor should be clean.
• The artist should wear gloves.
• The bandages, dyes/inks, and needles should all be sterile, new and unopened.

Tell your tattoo artist that you're pregnant. Be sure you will be able to contact him or her if you have any problems after getting the tattoo.

Skin Dyes
We don't know if tattoo dyes and inks affect a developing baby. The first three months of pregnancy are especially important. This is the time when the organs, bones, nerves, muscles—pretty much everything—are developing. At the end of the first trimester, the fetus is only about 3 inches long and weighs 1 ounce. (It's only as heavy as five quarters.)

Amounts of chemicals that might be small and harmless to an adult can have a much bigger impact on a tiny fetus. So if you're thinking about a tattoo, wait at least until the second trimester.

Back Tattoos and Pain Relief During Delivery
An epidural is a shot given in the lower back to help block the pain of childbirth. Most health care providers will give an epidural to a woman with a tattoo on her lower back. But they may not if the tattoo is recent and still fresh.

There is no clear evidence for or against giving epidurals near tattoos. If you do have a back tattoo, find out the hospital's policy on epidurals in advance.

January 2007