Journal of Clinical Anaesthesiology: Open Access

Tattoos and Post-Operative Pain

Abstract

Mustafa Ahmadi, Mirjam Droger, Michelle Samuels, T Martijn Kuijper, Robert Jan Stolker and Seppe Koopman

Objective: Personalised post-operative pain treatment holds the potential to minimize side effects while maximizing effectiveness. Several phonotypical factors including gender and the presence of tattoos might influence post-operative pain experience. Tattoos have grown in popularity in recent years and the number of patients with tattoos has increased rapidly. A preconception arose in our department about the pain experience of patients with tattoos. We decided to investigate whether patients with tattoos experienced more post-operative pain than patients without tattoos.

Methods: We studied the relationship between tattoos and post-operative pain in a prospective cohort study. All adults willing to provide informed consent and scheduled for surgery (elective or emergency) or placement of a venous cannula in the pre-surgery ward were enrolled in this study. Main outcome measures were post-operative pain scores (Numeric Rating Scale). Secondary outcomes included pain scores after administration of a locoregional technique (neuraxial, plexus, peripheral nerve block) or insertion of a venous cannula.

Results: After multivariable analyses, tattoos were not associated with increased post-procedural pain. Younger people and women experienced more pain.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that there is no relationship between the presence of tattoos and postprocedural pain.