Parents: You may think temporary tattoos are harmless for children. But kids who decorate themselves with these transfer tattoos may be disrupting the skin’s protective barrier, Spanish researchers report.
They looked at the effects of permanent tattoos and temporary transfers on the skin.
The surprising takeaway: Temporary transfer tattoos do more damage.
More moisture was lost in the skin with transfer tattoos compared to non-tattooed skin.
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This can damage the epidermis, the skin’s thin protective barrier, the study found. Meanwhile, permanently tattooed skin has only a small difference from untouched skin, researchers add.
“Skin to which transfer tattoos had been applied presented lower temperatures, poorer hydration of the stratum corneum [epidermis], and worse overall antioxidant capacity, compared to non-tattooed skin controls,” lead researcher José Pablo Serrano, from the University of Granada in Spain says.
He and his colleagues caution that temporary transfer tattoos should be used sparingly, especially in people who suffer from