If you’re planning on getting a tattoo, make sure it’s from a professional and not a friend because ink work by amateurs may carry a risk of Hepatitis C, according to a new report.

In an analysis of several dozen past studies, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that tattoos from non-professionals appear to increase the risk of a possible blood-borne liver infection.

By contrast, there is no evidence that tattoos done by professionals carried such a risk.

Hepatitis C remains a major public health problem in the United States with between 75 and 85 percent of people infected with the disease developing chronic infection that can lead to serious diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.

The illness is passed to people through contact with infected blood. In the United States, there are roughly 18,000 new Hepatitis C infections every year, mostly when people who inject drugs share tainted needles or syringes.

But there are other ways of contracting the disease…

Read the rest of the article at Reuters: Amateur tattoos carry hepatitis C risk: study