Atypical neuroretinitis after exposure to tattoo ink

Purpose: The paper aimed to highlight the ocular complications after exposure to tattoo ink by presenting a case report. Material and methods: A 19-year-old patient presented to the ophthalmologist for decreased vision and photophobia after a tattoo she performed on her left thigh. Tattoo ink is mentioned as an inflammatory process trigger in current literature at skin level, but the eye related complications are those that can cause the patient’s quality of life to plummet through important VA alteration. Ocular inflammatory processes after exposure to tattoo ink can cause uveitis, patients may present with changes characteristic of Anterior Uveitis or may have significant ocular complications such as papillary swelling, retinal haemorrhage, and retinal macular effusion. The presented case showed how difficult it is to name Neuroretinitis’ etiology in a situation in which laboratory and imaging investigations excluded most of the causes that could determine such an aggressive pathology in a young person. Delayed hypersensitivity reaction caused by tattoo pigments is one of the mechanisms cited in the existing literature, but the mechanism that delineates ocular complications is very complex and, at this point, unfortunately little known.