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the line, he reported it being somewhat unpleasant, but not painful. Reversing direction, I moved the resistant roll of skin up into a shaded area within a feather. Again, it was sharp, well localized, and painful, but not as painful as the line. Changing direction, the tiny roll moved laterally across the feathers and then outside the outline of the tattoo. The outline of each feather corresponded to a sharp needle- like pain, the center of the feather a lesser intensity, and outside the tattoo, he felt discomfort, but not pain. IS IT SCAR TISSUE? Greg Williams, author of a soon-to- be-published book on scar tissue work, Pulling It All Together1 says scar tissue creates sharp, well- localized sensations of pain, while adhesions are less localized and have a somewhat duller sensation of pain (see image, page 74). The age and degree of involvement generate different textures in the tissue, as well as levels and types of pain. As bodyworkers, we typically look for scar tissue and adhesions in muscles, joint capsules, along surgical scars, and within the abdomen after surgery. Sometimes we find them in skin when a person sits for long periods in one position and has chronically tight muscles.2 According to Tracy Wilson at and instructor of scar tissue release work at the Massage Therapy Institute in Davis, California, Howstuffworks.com, tattoo artists typically use pneumatically driven plastic needles that inject ink at a consistent depth of about 1 millimeter (mm), which is supposed to be safely within the epidermis, well above the basement membrane, and unlikely to cause scarification.3 Nowhere in my literature search have I found anything about the current state-of-the-art tattoo equipment causing adhesions, but the less than 3-year-old tattoo in front of me was appearing to be one massive adhesion with scar tissue binding the outlines of the image to the underlying fascia on his back. AN AMAZING RELEASE I did not know what releasing this mixture of scar tissue and adhesions would do; it just seemed the right course of action for something this large that was clearly "glued down" to underlying tissue. It took nearly connect with your colleagues on massageprofessionals.com 75