Picture Actually Exhibits Pores and skin Punctured by Needle?

In mid-November 2024, a Reddit person resurfaced a photo (archived) purportedly displaying a magnified picture of a gap in human pores and skin after it had been punctured by a needle.

That submit had amassed greater than 55,000 upvotes and 1,500 feedback as of this writing.

The image was beforehand shared on Reddit in mid-April 2021 (archived), the place it was accompanied by the identical declare — that it depicted an intimate have a look at a puncture gap made by a needle in human pores and skin.

A reverse image search (archived) revealed that the photograph in question was hosted by the Science Photo Library, a London-based database of science and medical photos. The SPL web site famous that its photos are “acquired from scientific and medical consultants, acclaimed photographers and famend establishments.”

In accordance with the caption, the picture was captured by Anne Weston of the Francis Crick Institute and confirmed a extremely magnified puncture within the pores and skin made by a tattoo needle:

Tattoo needle puncture in pores and skin, colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Pores and skin tattooing has been practised for hundreds of years. To make tattooing everlasting tiny needles are used to punch by the highest layer of the pores and skin (dermis) and into the following layer (dermis). This picture reveals many pores and skin cells from the dermis surrounding a gap created by a tattoo needle. Magnification: x280 when printed at 10cm vast.

Tattoos develop into everlasting by piercing the highest layer of the pores and skin and depositing a small quantity of ink inside every puncture, in keeping with the Mayo Clinic. That microscopic course of was captured and magnified by scanning electron microscopy, a pictures course of that the National Library of Medicine famous permits for the “topographical visualization of buildings.”

SEM is extra highly effective than a standard microscope as a result of the system scans an electron beam over an merchandise reasonably than utilizing a mix of sunshine and high-power lenses to amplify a topic. These electron beams work together with a given pattern to map out its floor topography. It really works in an identical technique to another, larger-scale topographical mapping applied sciences, reminiscent of deep-sea mapping of the seafloor or gentle detection and ranging (LiDAR) processes on terrestrial landscapes — however at a a lot smaller scale.

The SEM image reveals the highest layer of the pores and skin, often called the dermis. Its outermost layer is called the stratum corneum, Latin for “sexy layer.” This outer layer offers the primary line of protection for the physique towards the exterior world and is made up of corneocytes. Corneocytes are made up of keratin filaments, flat cells that set up in a “brick and mortar formation.”

(The outermost layer of the dermis known as the stratum corneum, Latin for “sexy layer.” Mikael Häggström/Public Domain)

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