Your tattoo and epidural

Tattoo and epidural are closely linked if you are a girl and you do not want to give up on your tattoo project despite having children.

Where is epidural pricked ?

If modern times have brought us epidural (loco-regional analgesia), this is not a reason to deprive yourself from getting a beautiful vertical tattoo whether it is in block letters or in a fine cursive writing for example!

Above all, where does the epidural needle go?  Between the 3rd and 4th lumbar. Finally, this doesn’t leave you a lot of room to position your tattoo. Thus, you have to make sure that the tattoo artist (not always concerned with this issue) follows your instructions.

In fact, the person to give the starting signal for this needle will be the anesthesiologist.

Before 2002

First of all this matter was never raised. Canadian scientists have warned of the probable risks of poking through an inked skin. For example: Can ink migrate into the needle and be diffused?  The ink may be composed of more or less natural products. There were great debates, the result is that the risks remain theoretical, which does not mean they do not exist but they have not yet been identified conclusively. Obviously nobody wants to be the first case! Therefore, many anesthesiologists refused by precautionary principle.

There are other protocols to overcome the obstacle:

• Inject slightly above
• Finding a non-tattooed interstice
• Incising the skin to pass the needle under the inked part. The depth of a tattoo is between 0.6 and 2.20 mm
• No epidural (yes, we know, this is not the expected answer)!

Risks may be more related to skin reactions (such as eczema) appearing after the tattoo; infections that do not allow the epidural. It is recommended to get a tattoo after maternity and not before. Currently, scientific data implying that tattoos are responsible for the complications are almost absent. The case that causes refusal most is that the lumbar tattoo covers too much with our calligraphy: Talk about luck!

In order to keep the choice of using an epidural depending on your convictions and healthcare professionals, it can be helpful to think particularly of shifting the location a few centimeters.