1FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Despite
many reports of skin burns in the region of tattoos, there are few safety studies
concerning RF heating caused by tattoos. Manufacturers of tattoo ink are numerous
and use a range of dye ingredients, making it difficult to assess the
electromagnetic properties of each ink pigment. An anchor-shaped tattoo was modelled
1mm under the skin layer in the region of the cervical spine to predict a possible
skin burn generated by RF coil. A simulation model of RF heating in tattoo
pigment is proposed, which shows that certain tattoo pigments may lead to
severe skin burns when performing high field MRI.
