No injections through a tattoo?

[cayenne06]

So I had a patient today, getting a depo shot. She had a sleeve tattoo, and said that the last person who gave her her shot told her that it couldn't be injected through a tattoo. I guess there is a risk of a small scar causing a cosmetic problem with the tattoo, but I couldn't find any source that talked about the dangers of injecting through a tattoo. I found some discussion about ink being carried into deeper tissues by the needle, but that seems roundly debunked.

Is this a thing? I don't think it is, but thought I would see if anyone else had any thoughts.

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

There shouldn't be any problem giving an IM injection through a healed tattoo. Relatively speaking tattoos wouldn't be safe to get if the ink wasn't safe to enter the blood stream in the first place.

The safety of epidurals through tattoos is not as well known since some metal particles of the ink in an animal study has been shown to be released into the neuraxial space, which theoretically could cause inflammation of the meninges causing numerous neurological problems.