25/07/2026
"Think Before You Ink" — Tattoo-associated uveitis can easily be overlooked.
🔸 Q: I have had a few young patients with uveitis and no other associated systemic history other than a recent full-sleeve tattoo. Is there any relationship?
🔸 A: “Absolutely. Tattoo-associated uveitis is a newly recognized condition in which the immune system reacts to tattoo ink, most often dense black pigments, leading to ocular inflammation,” says Emely Minino Soto, OD, a resident in ocular disease at Omni Eye Services of Atlanta. “When it occurs alongside inflammatory skin nodules (granulomas) at the tattoo site, it is known as tattoo-associated granulomas with uveitis (TAGU),” a term introduced in 2018 to describe an exclusion diagnosis for patients who present with both tattoo granulomas and uveitis, but no evidence of systemic sarcoidosis.
Keep reading: https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/think-before-you-ink