The Daily Mail is reporting on the case of Federica Iammatteo, a student from Milan, who was described as being "energetic and sporty" and who was in perfect health when she went to a tattoo parlor on Thursday, April 18, for another tattoo.
However, by Friday morning, she complained of feeling "shivery" and of sensations like pins and needles in her hands and feet. She sent a text to a friend saying she had a fever, but when her symptoms became worse as the day wore on, her family sought medical help.
No sooner had she arrived at the hospital when she began to hemorrhage and was immediately transported to Policlinica, Milan's top hospital.
But it was already too late. She was suffering from septic shock and at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, she passed away.
"You don’t die like this at 23 years old," said her father, Agostino Iammatteo. "She was full of energy, sporty. We want to know what happened."
He does not appear to be blaming the tattoo parlor: "My daughter didn’t lack money to go to a proper centre where it was more than safe to get a tattoo and she had already had others done there."
So what happened to Federica?
Thus far, authorities have few clues and have ordered an autopsy to take place this week.
Police visited the tattoo clinic but found no evidence of unhygienic practices.
According to the Mayo Clinic, tattoos can cause problems ranging from allergic reactions to dyes to infections and transmission of blood-borne diseases due to improperly sterilized instruments.
Plenty of Americans are willing to take these risks. In July of 2012, it was estimated that 45 million Americans had a least one tattoo, spending an estimated $1.65 billion on the practice in any one of the nation's 21,000 parlors.
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