An overlooked source of skin dose perturbation: Commercial tattoo inks in radiotherapy
Fig 3
Composition-dependent depth-dose profiles for three inks under 6 MeV electron and 6 MV photon irradiation.
(a, d) brown (Fe2O3-rich), (b, e) orange (Al-containing), and (c, f) black (carbon-based). Under electron irradiation, all pigments show shallow, localized perturbations with total skin-integrated dose differing by <2.5% from control. Under photon irradiation, dose perturbations follow the trend brown > orange > black, reflecting each ink’s high-Z metal content. Pigment loadings: 0%, 5%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%.