Bull Soc Pathol Exot. 2000 Jan; 93(5): 361-4.

[Traditional tattoos with neurological diseases in Togo]

Balogou AA, Dodzro KC, Grunitzky EK.

In Africa, there are two types of health systems: the modern system and the traditional one. Traditional medicine attracts more patients, because it is more financially accessible and corresponds to cultural representations of disease in society. Traditional therapeutic tattoos are not well known by the conventional health system in West Africa, although they are commonly used by traditional healers. We report here our experience of these tattoos. We examined the skin of 36,000 patients in the neurological department of the teaching hospital of Lome from 1985 to 1995. We found three types of tattoos amongst patients. The first are tribal or social tattoos: they are large, homogeneous, located on exposed parts of the body and can be seen easily by others (fig 1: g, h, i), whilst therapeutic tattoos are slight and hidden under clothes and can also be repeated (heterogeneous). The second type of tattoo is one that reveals the patient's pathological history. The third is linked to the motive of consultation. Seventy-five per cent (75%) of patients had traditional therapeutic tattoos. Epilepsy tattoos are slim, located on the forehead (fig 1a); peripheral facial paralysis tattoos are found on the facial nerve (fig 1 b). In cases of peripheral neuropathy, tattoos are symmetrically distributed on hands and legs (fig 1 f). As for medullar compression, the highest tattoos correspond to the level of compression. Studying the localisation, age, and aim of tattoos brings to light their diagnostic, prognostic, and epidemiological interests. Skin can thus reveal itself to medical staff as an open, though coded, medical file. They need only to learn how to read it.