Lower back tattoos are all the rage, with many women adopting them in early adulthood. The Wall Street Journal recently examined concerns about lower back tattoos causing risks to pregnant women at the time of [tag-tec]epidural injections[/tag-tec].

Epidural injections are given to ease the pain of labor and childbirth and are administered to the spine at the level of the lower back. With more women seeking lower back tattoos, physicians were concerned about the dye or ink from these [tag-tec]tattoos[/tag-tec] entering the spinal cord through the epidural injection.

The research says that there may be a minimal risk, and women should be aware of this, but there is no cause for massive alarm. If your tattoo is dry and the ink has set, the chances of any appreciable amount of dye entering your spinal fluid is very small.

Anesthesiologists are advised to make a nick in the skin prior to inserting the epidural, which will prevent any tattooed skin from being pulled into the site of injection.

The FDA does regulate the pigments and dyes used in tattooing but has not, so far, issued any recommendations or preferences on this issue.

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[tag-tec]Intertrigo[/tag-tec] is a skin problem in which the folds of the skin become inflamed. Most of the time, this inflammation occurs due to heat, friction, and lack of air circulation. Sometimes, this inflamed skin becomes prone to secondary infection, and the skin becomes further inflamed due to this infection.

Intertrigo is a common complication of both obesity and [tag-tec]diabetes[/tag-tec]. It is linked to obesity because severly obese people have more friction within their skin folds; it is linked to diabetes because poor circulation from diabetes often means that skin is more fragile and more prone to become infected and inflamed.

Intertrigo is more common in hot, humid environments, and mainly impacts those who are very old or very young, due to problems with mobility and the presence of incontinence.

Treatment for intertrigo most often occurs with antifungal creams, such as miconazole and clotrimazole. It is also important to keep the skin folds as dry and cool as possible. A drying solution can be applied to promote drying.

There are several ways to prevent intertrigo:

Weight loss, so that the skin does not rub against each other

Wearing loose, light cotton-based clothing to reduce moisture sitting on the skin

Cleansing affected areas with soap and water and allowing them to dry thoroughly

Using antifungal absorbent powder to reduce inflammation and infection on affected areas

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