Coexisting tattoo pigment and metastatic melanoma in the same sentinel lymph node.

BACKGROUND

The principle of sentinel lymph node states that metastatic melanoma spreads in a predictable sequential fashion from the primary site to the regional lymph node basin.

OBJECTIVE AND

CONCLUSION

Reports show that melanoma and tattoo pigment can be in the same regional lymph node basin on gross evaluation. We present two cases of melanoma arising within the setting of a tattoo where the sentinel lymph node contained both pigmented histiocytes and metastatic melanoma on gross inspection and histopathology.