A medical tattoo is a
tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...
used to treat a condition, communicate information, or mark a body location.
Historical uses
A crude practice of
corneal tattooing
Corneal tattooing (or keratopigmentation) is the practice of tattooing the cornea of the human eye. Reasons for this practice include improvement of cosmetic appearance and the improvement of sight. Many different methods and procedures exist tod ...
was performed by
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be o ...
in 150 CE. He tried to cover
leucomatous opacities of the cornea by cauterizing the surface with a heated stilet and applying powdered
nutgalls and iron or pulverized pomegranate bark mixed with copper salt; the practice was revived in the 1800s. With the rise of Christianity, tattooing declined and eventually became banned by a papal edict in 787 CE. The practice of corneal tattooing was revived by
Louis de Wecker in the 1870s.
To provide medical information
During the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
, threats of nuclear warfare led several U.S. states to consider blood type tattooing. Programs were spurred in Chicago, Utah and Indiana based on the premise that if an atomic bomb were to strike, the resulting damage would require extremely large amounts of blood within a short amount of time.
Similar to
dog tags
Dog tag is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel. The tags' primary use is for the identification of casualties; they have information about the individual written on them, including i ...
, members of the U.S. military may have their vital information tattooed on themselves, usually on the
rib cage below the armpit; they are referred to as "meat tags".
Tattoos have also been used to provide notice to emergency personnel that a person has
diabetes mellitus
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...
; people with this condition may fall into a
diabetic coma
Diabetic coma is a life-threatening but reversible form of coma found in people with diabetes mellitus.
Three different types of diabetic coma are identified:
#Severe low blood sugar in a diabetic person
# Diabetic ketoacidosis (usually type 1 ...
and be unable to communicate that information.
For radiation treatment
Tattoos have been used as
fiducial marker
A fiducial marker or fiducial is an object placed in the field of view of an imaging system that appears in the image produced, for use as a point of reference or a measure. It may be either something placed into or on the imaging subject, or a ...
s as an aid in guiding
radiotherapy
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Rad ...
.
Similarly,
Scott Kelly utilized marker tattoos in the positioning of sonogram probes for multiple checks for
atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis in which the wall of the artery develops abnormalities, called lesions. These lesions may lead to narrowing due to the buildup of atheromatous plaque. At onset there are usually no s ...
while on a long-duration mission on the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
.
Paramedical tattoos
A paramedical tattoo is a cosmetic tattoo applied because of a medical condition or to disguise the results of its treatment.
During
breast reconstruction
Breast reconstruction is the surgical process of rebuilding the shape and look of a breast, most commonly in women who have had surgery to treat breast cancer. It involves using autologous tissue, prosthetic implants, or a combination of both wi ...
after
mastectomy (removal of the breast for treatment of cancer), or
breast reduction surgery
Reduction mammoplasty (also breast reduction and reduction mammaplasty) is the plastic surgery procedure for reducing the size of large breasts. In a breast reduction surgery for re-establishing a functional bust that is proportionate to the wom ...
, tattooing is sometimes used to replace the
areola
The human areola (''areola mammae'', or ) is the pigmented area on the breast around the nipple. Areola, more generally, is a small circular area on the body with a different histology from the surrounding tissue, or other small circular ...
which has been removed during mastectomy, or to fill in areas of pigment loss which may occur during breast reduction performed with a free nipple graft technique.
Since September 2011, the
Royal Derby Hospital offers free nipple tattoos for breast surgery patients in order to mask the scars of surgery. The purchase of the tattoo device was funded by the Ashbourne Breast Cancer Walk.
Vinnie Myers of Little Vinnie's Tattoos in
Finksburg, Maryland, has performed nipple tattoos on over 5,000 women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer, including those of Caitlin Kiernan, who wrote a story about Mr. Myers in ''The New York Times''. A similar service offered without charge in 2017 by a cosmetic tattooist in the UK was booked up six months ahead. Another option some people choose after mastectomy is to get a decorative tattoo on the chest as body art instead of a reconstruction.
Other uses include simulating the appearance of fingernails and covering scars. Micropigmentation (
permanent makeup) can be used to reduce the visibility of
vitiligo
Vitiligo is a disorder that causes the skin to lose its color. Specific causes are unknown but studies suggest a link to immune system changes.
Signs and symptoms
The only sign of vitiligo is the presence of pale patchy areas of depigmen ...
areas on the skin.
See also
*
SS blood group tattoo
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medical Tattoo
Tattooing and medicine