Skin Graft Re-pigmentation with Medical Tattooing

If your skin has been affected by a major wound and had a need for a skin graft, the skin graft itself may present as a visible difference. Skin graft re-pigmentation with medical tattooing can be used to visually improve this.

A patient of mine has a skin graft around the inner corner of her eye. Grafts often have defined edges and can look different from the surrounding skin, even though the skin has been taken from the same person. It’s not always a simple job of colouring in the graft to look like the rest of the skin as the treatment needs to be changed depending on the area concerned. This is highlighted in areas such as around the eyes; there are lines with different colours, tones and textures all within a small area. It needs a detailed type of tattooing where you’re incorporating wrinkles, skin texture, shadows, highlights whilst trying to camouflage the fact that the graft area is also more pronounced.

The area around the eye is ultra-thin skin which means it can react immediately to needles and may swell within about 10 minutes of working on it. As soon as there is swelling and redness you lose that blank piece of skin that you need to draw on. Suddenly you have a swollen red sore area and cannot see the impact you are making. It then becomes necessary to stop, allow the area to heal and then go back to it anywhere from 6 to 10 weeks later. This means this type of treatment can take a long time with only minor changes. Your patient needs to trust you and the process, and you both need to be willing to take the time and patience required to get the best results.

Skin graft re-pigmentation on a cheek

Other areas may respond completely differently. The cheek area as shown below responded really well in the first session, and covered most of the area with a decent coverage and colour match. All that was required in the second treatment was to colour in any patches, add some fine-tuning such as freckles, and blend the edges in. The whole treatment including the healing time took 2 months and had huge results in the visible impact of the graft, and the confidence of the patient.

Anaesethic can be used on the area so the treatment is comfortable and each treatment can last from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the size of the graft.

Skin grafts are relevant for any skin tone

It is relevant for any skin tone as shown in the photo below. This patient had hypopigmentation and hyperpigmentation in the same area. Medical Tattooing will not cover the hyperpigmentation so we concentrated on the pale areas of hypopigmentation blending it to his natural skin tone, which meant the areas of hyperpigmentation did not stand out as much.

Medical tattooing is safe, effective and low-risk for all types of skin grafts, on any area of the body, on any skin tone.

As a specialist Medical Tattooist, I am often in the final stage of a patient’s recovery from trauma or surgery. Understanding the impact the skin graft may be having on your life, you can have every confidence that I will treat you with empathy and care, and use my specialist skills to reduce the appearance of your skin graft.

Skin Graft Re-pigmentation with Medical Tattooing