How Medical Tattoos Can Help People With Skin Grafts And Scars

By Lisa Rapaport(Reuters Health) - Patients who get tattoos to cover facial skin grafts and scars may feel happier with both their appearance and quality of life, a Dutch study suggests. The practice of using tattoos to cover damaged skin isn’t that new. Doctors even have a term for it: dermatography. These medical tattoos are not butterflies or lightning bolts; rather doctors use subtle coloration to make discolored areas match surrounding skin more closely. While it doesn’t cure disease, cosmetic changes made by tattoo needles can still have lasting health benefits, said one of the study’s authors, Dr. Rick van de Langenberg. “Scar and skin graft color abnormalities can result in impaired physical, psychological, and social well-being, especially in the facial area that is constantly visible to the patient and others,” van de Langenberg, a researcher at Diakonessen Hospital in Utrecht, said by email. For the study, researchers focused on 76 patients who received medical tattoos to cover scars and skin grafts left on the head and neck after cancer treatment. Most of the patients were female, and the participants ranged in age from 19 to 86. Many of the participants had skin cancer or melanoma, though some had oral or thyroid tumors or other types of malignancies. Researchers asked patients to rate how their scar or graft looked on a 10-point scale, with zero as “very ugly” and 10 as “very nice,” before and after they got ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news