title: [Tattoos and dermatological, plastic and visceral surgery].
abstract: The estimated prevalence of tattooed individuals in Europe and in France is around 10%. The current "tattooed generation" was born mainly between 1975 and 1986, and according to a recent German study, the "typical tattooed" individual is a 30-year-old male or female with a mean tattooed area of 300 cm(2) or over in 61% of cases and more than one tattoo in 65% of cases. As this population gradually ages, physicians will be increasingly called on to treat tattooed areas, either for surgical removal of the tattoo itself or for excision of a suspect lesion or skin tumour, or for incision of the skin in a setting of either elective or emergency visceral surgery. This review focuses on the surgical situations potentially arising in tattooed patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Allergology and Venereology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Helsinki, Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Meilahdentie 2, PO Box 160, 00029 HUS, Finlande. nicolaskluger@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kluger
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Koljonen
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blatière
mesh_terms: D003663:Decision Trees; D062109:Dermatologic Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative; D013653:Tattooing; D014781:Viscera / Q000601:surgery