(NEXSTAR) – Your next tattoo session might leave you with a case of the “tattoo flu.”

The “tattoo flu,” according to people who say they’ve experienced the phenomenon, is a malaise that sometimes afflicts tattoo recipients who get larger tattoos, or who sit for an especially lengthy tattoo sessions.

It’s not an actual virus, nor any type of infection caused by the tattoo process, but rather the body’s immunological reaction to undergoing a traumatic event, according to experts.

“This absolutely happens,” Mary Lupo, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist and an adjunct faculty member at Tulane University, told Nexstar. “It’s an immune response, and I think it’s very dependent on the individual and their sensitivity. … Obviously, the bigger the tattoo, the greater the assault, and you’re p

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