Back in the early 90’s when I attended the University of Washington, my biggest concern was getting decent grades so that I could get through the engineer program and get a decent job afterwards. I really didn’t have time (or the inclination) to hang out with those who were into body piercing or ubiquitous tattooing.

Now that piercing and tattooing has apparently become more mainstream, one unfortunate hazard is apparently becoming more commonplace. It turns out that hepatitis C is easily transmitted by sharing body jewelry and getting tattoos done with non-sterile needles.

A survey conducted at an (unnamed) Midwestern university found that of the 610 students asked, 75 percent participated in these risky behaviors. What’s more , 27 percent of them did not realize hep C could be spread through IV drug use (the most common method) while 77 percent did not know that it could be spread through intranasal cocaine use. That’s something that would never had occurred to me - I am so far out of the loop with that culture!

Now here’s an interesting note: 53 percent of those surveyed said that they had shared pierced jewelry. I’m wondering how much of that percentage includes earrings? Again my personal exposure to the “piercing culture” is pretty limited, so I would be surprised that there would be that many people piercing anything besides ears. Hmm…

“We were surprised at the proportion of undergraduates who were inadvertently putting themselves at risk for hepatitis C,” Dr. Thomas Shehab (one of the people working on the study), of St. Joseph Mercy Health System, said in a prepared statement.

“In addition to well documented traditional risk factors, we are concerned about students who may be putting themselves at risk for this serious disease with even something as simple as sharing pierced body jewelry,” Shehab said.

He and his colleagues were also alarmed that few of the students’ doctors had talked to them about viral hepatitis/HIV risk factors.

“The majority of the group had been to the physician for a health care maintenance examination in the last three years, but during that visit, most had never been asked about behaviors that put them at risk for serious infection,” Shehab said.