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 A surprising number of people who get tattooed say they develop severe itching and swelling lasting for months or even years, a new survey suggests. Tattoo design in the form of four-leaf clover; Shutterstock ID 215931283; PO: today.com 
 
 After interviewing 300 randomly selected people with tattoos in New York City’s Central Park, researchers found that 4 percent had experienced a short duration rash right after getting “inked,” while an additional 6 percent reported skin problems that lasted longer than four months, according to the study published Wednesday in Contact Dermatitis. "I was totally surprised by these numbers," said Dr. Marie C. Leger, assistant professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center and lead author of the study , which was published Thursday in the journal Contact Dermatitis. Leger says the study findings, derived from survey interviews with some 300 adults in New York's Central Park in June 2013, mirror those in other European countries, which have only recently begun to monitor medical complications associated with tattoos. People with reactions to their tattoos reported skin irritations that were “itchy, scaly, raised, and/or filled with edema.” 
 
 Red ink appeared to be linked with rashes more often than other colors. The other 6% had itching, scaly skin and swelling around the tattoo site that lasted for more than four months. Almost half (44 percent) of chronic reactions were to red ink, even though only slightly more than a third (36 percent) had tattoos with red ink. A 2012 Harris Interactive Poll found that at least one in five of all adults in the U.S. has at least one tattoo.
– A new survey of those who have gotten tattoos suggests that more people than realized suffer a nasty skin reaction as a result. NYU researchers determined that 10% of people suffer short-term complications such as a rash, infection, or swelling that last for days or weeks. But the scarier stat is that 6% of the newly inked have complications that last at least four months, and sometimes for years, the researchers say in a post at Eureka Alert. "We were rather alarmed at the high rate of reported chronic complications tied to getting a tattoo," says lead investigator Marie Leger. In the study published in Contact Dermatitis, the research team suggests it's time to set up a national database and a protocol for reporting problems. Those steps could help determine what's causing the reactions, such as particular chemicals in the ink, say the researchers. One nugget from the 300-person study is that red ink was used in 44% of the tattoos that caused chronic problems, the highest percentage of any color. That didn't surprise the president of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, who, while calling rashes "uncommon although not unheard of," tells Today.com that "some folks' bodies do not like red pigments." No federal regulations cover tattoo ink, notes CNN, and it quotes a dermatology professor not involved with the study who praises it for calling attention to the subject. He predicts that the composition of dyes used in tattoos might come under federal scrutiny. (A more bizarre side effect of tattoos: They'll mess up your Apple Watch.)