Could wide tattoo delay the early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma?

Abstract

Could wide tattoo delay the early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma?Dear Editor, Herein, we report a case of a 32-year-old woman, Caucasian, phototype IV, with an insurgence of a single pigmented lesion developed on a wide tattoo in the back. She had done the tattoo about 11 years before the lesion appeared. Clinical examination revealed a 2 × 3 cm, irregular, heterochromatic, pigmented lesion (Figure 1a,b). Dermoscopy examination revealed an asymmetric lesion in structure and colour, showing brown and irregular dots and globules, atypical pigment network and white-blue pattern (Figure 1c,d). No metastasis or distant lesions were observed at clinical output. Histological examination showed the

Comment on the relationship between wide tattoos and delayed melanoma diagnosis

“…The author wrote some comments on our recently published article entitled 'Could wide tattoo delay the early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma?'. 1 The patient described in our paper, skin photo-type III according to Fitzpatrick, had a negative anamnesis for melanoma and a negative family history as well.…”

Difficulties in the dermoscopic assessment of tattooed skin: Comment on ‘Could wide tattoo delay the early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma?’

“…Dear Editor, We would like to comment on the Letter to Editor by Monfrecola et al 1 describing the case of melanoma arising in the tattoo, as we believe that the authors discussed a very important issue. As the popularity of tattooing is rising worldwide, we observed that the problem of proper skin assessment in tattooed individuals is of high interest.…”

Tattoos, tattooists, moles and melanomas

“…Dear Editor, I read with interest the letter by Monfrecola et al 1 published in the Journal about the risk of delayed diagnosis if cutaneous melanoma (CM) arises within large tattoos. This deserves further comments.…”

“…On the clinical picture, different moles can be noticed and some of them seem atypical. 1 The upper back is obviously a difficult area for self-control irrespective of the tattoo. The marital status of the patient would have been of interest, as unmarried patients are more at risk to be diagnosed at a late stage of CM.…”

“…3 The authors suggested a screening at time 0 (before tattoo) by archiving iconographic documentation of the skin and a more tightening follow-up should be attempted, especially in case of very wide tattoo. 1 As tattooing is not a risk factor for CM, there is no ground to suggest that any given tattooed individual undergoes 'tightened' surveillance if he is not at higher risk of melanoma or if the tattoo is not covering numerous moles. As almost 20% of the adult population is tattooed, 4 it would be time consuming for dermatologists to examine all tattooed patients, even if we restrict to 'wide tattoos'.…”