I’m not really a fan of tattoos.  The whole permanent nature of them kinda puts me off, but it’s hard to dispute that they are enduringly popular.  I came across a cool online course recently however that is not only training tattoo artists in drawing their creations, but also to perform a social good into the bargain.

The project has emanated from Brazil, where the beach culture is world famous.  The copacabana beach in Rio is known around the world and a enticing attraction to sun worshipers the world over.  Of course, the risks of excessive exposure to the sun is well known, and melanoma is sadly on the increase.

This is where the Tatuador Consciente project comes in.  It’s running an online course that is teaching tattoo artists how to detect the signs of melanoma and other skin cancers whilst they’re going about their work.

The project was launched by a Brazilian sunscreen company and has initially trained 200 tattoo artists across the country under the tuition of experts from the A C Camargo Cancer Center.  Each student is training to identify the kind of marks that appear when skin cancer is present, and indeed on the potential risk of excessive exposure to UV rays.

The aim of the project is for the tattoo artists to give clients a quick skin cancer check whilst inking them up, with the hopeful consequence that any instances of the disease are caught early without them requiring a special trip to a dermatologist.  Since the original pilot, another 250 tattoo artists have completed courses online, all for free, and there have already been instances recorded of skin cancer having been detected by the artists during a session with a client.

It’s a really nice innovation that helps to deliver a social good (in the Yunus sense of the word), and you can find out more about it via the project video below.