美国科学60秒 SSS 2012-09-10（在线收听）

 Thinking about getting a new tatoo, Maybe a nice 3D double helix or an I-heart-Higgs Bosons. Well, you might wind up getting some mycobacteria with your body art. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has turned up about two dozen cases of this infection from contaminated tatoo ink. Last January, public health officials in western New York state launched an investigation after a tatoo recipient reported a persistent rash - itchy red bumps all over his new tat. A skin sample tested positive for Mycobacterium chelonae, a microbe common in tap water. A list of the tatoo artist's clients turned up another nineteen cases of the rash including fourteen confirmed infections with the same bug. The tatoo parlor itself was clean, no bacteria in the water supply. But a bottle of premixed gray ink turned up positive. This great wash, which is used to give tats a shaded 3D quality, was most likely contaminated during its manufacture and since been recalled. But not before a handful of additional cases cropped up in elsewhere around the country. So if you are really itching to express yourself and tatoo might indeed be just what the doctor ordered.