Research says tattoo recognition critical in identifying decedents in South Africa

A study carried out by South African academics has underscored the fact that tattoos are an important biometric marker critical to identifying deceased persons in that country, in the wake of a growing trend of unidentified decedents in Johannesburg.

Per the research, tattoos, which are often considered as arts of mere fun or cultural expression, can actually serve as a forensic tool to make out dead persons in situations where other biometric identifiers like fingerprints, dentition and DNA are unavailable or inconclusive. This is because tattoos can remain on one’s skin even in the case of trauma or decomposition, especially if found in body parts which are less prone to post-mortem damage.

The research was carried out in association with the Human Decedent Identification Unit (HDIU) at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Services (JFPS) Medico-legal Laboratory, with ethical approval by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Human Research Ethics Committee. The experts used high-resolution imaging and ethnographic documentation to analyze tattoo prevalence, types, and placement.

Although a significant forensic identifier, tattoos are underutilized in South Africa’s unidentified decedent caseload as a result of inconsistent or poor-quality documentation and lack of classification systems tailored to local African contexts where tattoo meanings may differ widely from Western norms.

During the study period which ran from 2017-2021, the research found that of the 634 unidentified decedents, 126 of them, about 20 percent of the total, had tattoos which could have been used to identify them and further legal investigations.

The study also found that 94 percent of the decedents with tattoos were black, 98 percent were female, and 55 percent had more than one tattoo, mostly common on the arm and drawn with black ink for the most part.

The authors argue that in order to enhance the utility of tattoos in forensic identification, it is necessary to improve visualization techniques such as infrared photography, standardize documentation protocols, and develop context-aware annotation frameworks for tattoos.

Going by the research, tattoos are not just body art but useful forensic evidence, which when properly recorded and interpreted within their socio-cultural contexts, can play a crucial role in facilitating identification of the unidentified dead.

South Africa’s CSIR, a government-run research and development organization, also announced in 2024 that it had developed a system that makes it possible to simultaneously capture internal and surface fingerprints to identify corpses.

Apart from decedent identification in South Africa, tattoos are also being explored as an alternative for digital payments authentication in Asia.  Tattoo recognition is also part of a new victim identification system developed by Face Forensics.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometric identifiers  |  biometrics  |  forensics  |  South Africa  |  tattoo recognition