Abstract Background Unknown deceased, unrecognizable bodies (either decomposed or mutilated) are often encountered in mass disasters, crime scene investigations and forensic examinations. The cases may pertain to suicides, homicides, airplane crashes, mass murders, fire, explosion, train accidents, and natural disasters, etc. In these cases, identification is a significant step and a challenging task for the forensic team. The identification is primarily conducted by recognizing facial features. However, in these cases, the face of the deceased is often mutilated or dismembered, which renders it unidentifiable. In such cases, other reliable features of identification may be used for identification purposes. Main body Tattoo marks hold significant potential in such scenarios. The tattoo marks are generally found to be associated with an individual’s age, sex, ethnicity, geographical area of origin, ancestry, individual’s likes/dislikes, personal preference, psychological status, perspectives towards society, social status, and religious beliefs. Further, tattoo marks may have unique information, e.g., individual’s name (initial letters, sign, or full name), individual’s relative name, or loved one’s name. This information, retrieved from tattoo marks, is beneficial in generating the biological profile of the individual/deceased, which may lead to identification. Conclusion Addressing the potential of tattoo marks in personal identification and disaster victim identification (DVI), the present review attempts to enlighten the importance of tattoo marks in the identification of the dead, especially the clues regarding the sex, ethnicity and behavioral characteristics that may provide leads in medico-legal investigation by narrowing down the number of suspects.
Chitara et al. (Wed,) studied this question.