Photobiomodulation (100 mW) caution applied to tattooed skin: a cross-sectional study

Photobiomodulation is a technique that can modulate cellular processes and promote therapeutic effects, with the vast majority of applications being painless and nonperceptible. This study aims to determine whether tattooed skin influences cutaneous sensory perception during photobiomodulation application. A cross-sectional study. Participants: 30 participants with tattooed skin on some body regions, mainly on the upper limbs. Data collection was performed in a controlled laboratory environment by a previously trained evaluator. Four modes of irradiation were applied to the skin of the participants, and their sensory perceptions were analyzed with the average time and energy for participants to manifest during irradiations of the PBM. The interventions showed statistically significant differences when comparing the different application mode groups in terms of intervention time with the placebo model. There was an average time and energy during the irradiations: cluster 12s (1.2 J), 660 nm 21s (2.1 J) and 808 nm 14s (1.4 J) until the participants manifested. As a limitation of the study, we can describe the non-observation of skin types I and VI according to the Fitzpatrick scale. This study was evident that tattoos may affect cutaneous sensory perception during photobiomodulation irradiation in all application modes, and the first manifestations reported were: warmth, tingling, and heating.