A woman has been left horrified after warts started to grow on her hand tattoo and had to be burned off.
Jade Harvey from Cape Coral, Florida has a snake tattooed on her right forearm and began to notice bumps growing on it shortly after falling pregnant.
When the lumps wouldn’t stop growing, Harvey was told by doctors that it wasn’t just a skin reaction, but warts that would have to be burned off with liquid nitrogen.
Harvey got the tattoo for $150 (£113) in June 2020, six months prior to finding out she was pregnant on Boxing Day.
Later, she found out that pregnancy hormones can exacerbate warts and learned they can spread to nearby tattoos if inked too close to pre-existing boils.
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Harvey said: “It looked like nothing I had ever seen before. I thought it was just a skin reaction caused by pregnancy.
“Be careful where you get your tattoos!”
Twenty year old Harvey explained she initially thought the bumps were a reaction to the sun.
She said: “I was in the pool and I thought the sun had caused the tattoo to flare up or something.”
But, when the warts still didn’t disappear after giving birth to her daughter Ella, she knew she had to get them looked at and treated with liquid nitrogen.
Harvey explained: “It felt like she was torching my skin! It felt like a torch was on my hand or I was holding dry ice - not fun!”
Given her new knowledge, Harvey urged others to think more closely about where they get tattoos placed.
She warned: “Be careful who you go to and where you get a tattoo - avoid places next to warts and don’t be impulsive.”
