Carbon stain

Carbon stains is a skin condition characterized by a discoloration of the skin from embedded carbon, usually occurring due to accidents with firearms or firecrackers, or from a puncture wound by a pencil. It may leave a permanent black mark of embedded graphite, easily mistaken for metastatic melanoma.^[1]: 47

Carbon stain
A carbon stain made from a puncture wound by a pencil (highlighted in circle).
Specialty	Dermatology

Soot tattoo

Soot tattoos are a type of carbon stain made by inserting soot into the dermis layer of the skin via a drug injection. A drug user may try to sterilize the tip of a needle with a flame, leaving a small amount of soot on the outside of the needle.^[2] An injection can carry this residual carbon into the skin, leaving a mark.^[3]

Soot tattoos are an accidental cutaneous condition. This is distinct from the intentional practice of a tattoo artist creating a tattoo with a design in the skin using soot as a pigment in tattoo ink.

See also

• List of cutaneous conditions