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Another reason I’m glad not to have a tattoo

Maria Jose Cristerna poses for pictures during a press conference at a tattoo shop in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, June 3, 2011. The Mexican tattoo artist said she started to cover her body in tattoos, piercings, titanium implants and dental fangs to re-invent herself as a vampire, her reaction after suffering domestic violence. Cristerna is in Colombia to attend a tattooing international convention. (William Martinez / Associated Press)
Maria Jose Cristerna poses for pictures during a press conference at a tattoo shop in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, June 3, 2011. The Mexican tattoo artist said she started to cover her body in tattoos, piercings, titanium implants and dental fangs to re-invent herself as a vampire, her reaction after suffering domestic violence. Cristerna is in Colombia to attend a tattooing international convention. (William Martinez / Associated Press)

Some tattoo-less 50-something friends and I were chatting recently that we were happy the tattoo craze bypassed boomer women of our generation, because we'd be worried how saggy the tattoos might look as we got older.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, released today, gave me another reason to be grateful. Seems that fairly nasty "nontuberculous mycobacterial skin infections" have been traced to "nationally distributed, prediluted gray ink."

Outbreaks of the infection occurred in several states, including in Washington state. "Seattle & King County identified five confirmed and 26 possible cases."

 

(Spokesman-Review archives photo of Maria Jose Cristerna at a tattoo shop in Bogota, Colombia)

 

 

 

 

Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.