ArticleInternational journal of legal medicine2026
Prevalence and forensic significance of tattoos in unidentified decedents in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Article in International journal of legal medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tattoos are an important potential identifier in unidentified decedent identification at medico-legal postmortem facilities, especially when primary methods of identification (such as DNA, dentition, and fingerprints) are lacking. This study aimed to describe and assess the prevalence of tattoos in unidentified decedents processed by the Human Decedent Identification Unit (HDIU) at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Services (JFPS) Medico-legal Laboratory, between 2017 and 2021. Tattoos were prevalent in 20% (n = 126) of the unidentified population (N = 634). The prevalent demographic profile of tattooed unidentified decedents was Black (94%) males (98%), with more than half (55%) having more than one tattoo present. Most tattoos were located in the arms (69%), made of black ink (94%) and amateur in nature (96%). The most common categories were letters (18%, n = 59), prison/gang related insignia (15%, n = 48), and popular symbols (13%, n = 44). Through the improved visualisation techniques, documentation, and classification of tattoos, more information can be made available to assist in the identification of unidentified decedents. There is a need for a better understanding and annotative frameworks with regards to tattoos that are relevant to the South African and African context.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41432748What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.