Decorative tattooing for scar camouflage: patient innovation

Dermatography has been used in medicine both for aesthetic purposes as permanent make-up or for coverage of scars, defects and skin colour abnormalities. These procedures demand skill and usually more than one session to achieve the desired result. We present an innovative idea from some of our plastic surgery patients to camouflage their scars using decorative tattooing done by non-medical professional tattooists. Long abdominal scars were covered with symmetrical tattoo designs rendering the scars inconspicuous even on close inspection. As tattooing is less of a social taboo nowadays and, indeed, quite acceptable among many of the younger generations, this method could be presented as an option to camouflage scars of the trunk and the limbs that are unacceptable or undesirable, especially in patients who already have tattoos on other parts of their bodies.