Melanomas Arising on Tattoos: A Casual Association with Practical Implications.

A 35-year-old man came to the clinic after noticing changes in a pigmented lesion on his right arm, where he had had a tattoo some 2 years previously. When the tattoo was placed, the tattooist avoided a pre-existing nevus, although during recent months this had grown until it reached the tattoo and came to the patient’s attention (Fig. 1 A and B). Clinical suspicion led us to remove the lesion. Histopathology showed it to be a superficial melanoma (Breslow depth, 0.35 mm) that had developed from a dysplastic nevus (Fig 1 C and D). Another patient (82 years) was referred by his family doctor with a suspected melanoma, which took the form of a pigmented lesion on a tattoo on the left arm that was