Dirt Tattoos from Biking (and Hiking)

Hello, I’m Dr. Neal Schultz and welcome to DermTV.

One of the most difficult skin injuries to treat from accidents on motorcycles or bicycles is something called a dirt tattoo. A dirt tattoo occurs when you have an accident, you fall and you scrap your skin. The dirt or gravel from the ground gets into the cut or scrape. Even though you wash it, not all of that dirt or gravel comes out and, as a result, the skin heals over it, and you have that dirt or gravel in there permanently and it causes a discoloration which is very difficult to treat. Usually, it can be helped somewhat with laser treatments that break up those particles of dirt or gravel or even surgical procedures which are more extensive that try to debride or get all of those little pieces of gravel out. But the bottom line is the best thing to do here is to prevent these dirt tattoos, and the way you do that is by making sure that when you’re on your bicycle or your rmotorcycle, your skin is completely covered by your clothing. So if you do have a fall or a spill and you do get scrapes or cuts, at least your skin is protected from the ground and you don’t get one of these annoying dirt tattoos.

Please join me again at DermTV.com. If you have a question, please send it to me by visiting DermTV.com/question. I’m Dr. Neal Schultz and thank you for watching today.