In a few weeks I will be compilling data from at least a hundred tatooed and pierced mothers (as well as a control group) about body art and lactation. If anyone has any relevent published research I can access to help with the history portion of the article I would appreciate the link or journal reference. As you probably know, there is little if any real data on this situation. I work with many young mothers and the question of recieving body art while lactating comes up quite a bit. We are now erring on the side of caution and telling mothers to wait, but as many of us have sometimes decades of pregnancy and lactation back to back we need real hard data on disease tranmission and healing rates. All we have now are vague assumptions about body art and disease transmission. There has not, to my knowlege, been a study done on young womyn of childbearing age only. They often have mush different histories and lower risk factors than the older male participants in other body art studies. The study is purely data collection on procedures that have already been done, thier timing, number of children, dates of body modification and HIV and Hep status. No procedures or testing will be done on any of the participants. They will not be asked to modify their mothering or nursing patterns in any way. The survey will be completed in about a month and then will be ready for the mothers to respond. I have a professional piercer (and nursing mama of two) helping me with the particulars of the body art world. I am looking for a tattoo artist to help also. If anyone has any relevant published data I can access or knows of mothers who would like to fill out the questionaire let me know. I will be setting up either a separate website or PO Box for the data collection. Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, AAPL, LLLleader, lactating mama Private Practice *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html