Henna Tattoo Can Trigger Other Allergies, Doc Warns

BERLIN - Temporary henna tattoos, made fashionable by pop icons such as Madonna ( news - web sites) and now available at many holiday resorts, can trigger dangerous allergic reactions to other substances, a leading German dermatologist said.

Professor Joerg Christoph Prinz said the widely available tattoos tend to contain paraphenylenediamine, or PPD, banned in the European Union ( news - web sites) for general use. A bad reaction to the tattoo dye can leave people with life-long allergies to such varied things as sunscreen, local anaesthetic, black clothes and eye shadow.

He told a training session for doctors in Munich this week that he wanted to see the "stay away" message spread as widely as possible.

Prinz, who is head of Munich University's dermatology clinic, told Reuters Health, "It is difficult to know how much PPD is in specific tattoos but it is widely used to make the natural red of the henna dye more intense and darker in color. It also makes the dye dry more quickly--most of the holiday tattoos contain it."

He noted, "It is already known that if there is as much as 10% PPD in an ink it will spark allergies in 80% of people."

The dye is allowed to be used in certain industrial situations in Germany, but only up to a concentration of 6%.

"The problem with all of this is that PPD provokes cross-allergy, making people allergic to other things which contain para substituted amino compounds," Prinz explained.

"This includes local anaesthetics, sun-protection cream and other cosmetics--eye shadow, for instance. Also clothes--black ones containing certain dyes--as well as many hair dyes and printing chemicals.

"I really would warn parents to keep their children and teenagers away from this stuff at all costs. These things could affect the rest of a person's life," Prinz added.