Fans of body art can add warts to the list of potential side effects of tattoos, say doctors who recently treated a patient with a verucca embedded in his ink, 20 years after the initial artwork.

While several cases of human papilloma virus (HPV) infections associated with tattoos have been reported, this one had a latency period of 20 years, write the Canadian dermatologists.  

“The prevalence of tattoos is increasing and as such, every physician must be aware of the potential adverse events associated with tattooing,” they note in a case report in Sage Open Medical Case Reports.

The 36-year-old man presented with hundreds of skin-coloured, flat-topped papules within a black coloured tattoo that suddenly appeared six months earlier on his right forearm.