AFTE Store - The Production and Persistence of Gunpowder Tattooing and Stippling of Living Human Skin

Powder tattooing and stippling of living human skin was studied over periods of hours and days until the minute injuries were no longer obvious. The evidence of injury required as little as 4 days to as much as 3 weeks to no longer be noticeable in the studies presented here. Even after the healing process was complete, close inspection of the affected arearevealed recognizable powder particles embedded in the skin. These particles ultimately disappeared over time intervals of 2 to 3 weeks to as much as 6 weeks. These tests provide, for the first time, some reasonable expectations for the time available to recognize this type of physical evidence following a shooting incident in which a surviving subject sustains powder tattooing and/or stippling of the skin from a close proximity firearm discharge. Such evidence can have reconstructive value as well as associate the subject with a recent shooting incident.

Full Journal: AFTE Journal Vol 46 No 2 (2014)