A perpetrator may remove jewellery from piercings, but if the skin is still there, the presence of the puncture marks have a value. The silicone remnants of implants – and if we are really lucky, a visible and still decipherable batch number – can be most helpful in tracking down where surgery has been performed and upon whom. A tattoo might be removed through skinning or dismemberment, but if you understand how tattooing works, it takes only a little bit of anatomical know-how to uncover some evidence of inking.
