Tattoos have continued to gain mainstream attention, so much so that even politicians are getting them, according to the NWF Daily News.

However, there is speculation as to whether getting a tattoo might actually be safe.

German dermatologists published an article in March regarding their effort to find out if a tattoo had caused skin cancer in a 48-year-old man, according to the website mccrearyrecord.com.

About four months after a tattooist had pumped red and black pigments into the skin on the man's left leg, he was reportedly diagnosed with skin cancer at a spot where red ink had been used.

Although dermatologists reported finding no direct connection between the tattoo ink and skin cancer, they urged doctors to look for any signs of squamous-cell carcinoma in patients who have a reaction to tattoos, according to the article that is published in PRS Global Open, a medial journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

"The number of skin cancers arising in tattoos is seemingly low, and this association has to be considered thus far as coincidental," an earlier review had stated.

However, authors have reportedly noted that tattoo ink might contain possible carcinogens.

In the United States, tattoo ink is considered a cosmetic product, according to the website. Although the Food and Drug Administration is able to screen the pigments that are used in the inks, they reportedly don't in most cases "because of other competing public health priorities and a previous lack of evidence of safety problems specifically associated with these pigments."

Janet Nudelman, director of the California-based Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, stated, "FDA has basically been acting once cosmetics reach the market and cause harm."