Tattoo Recognition Technology - Challenge (Tatt-C): An Open Tattoo Database for Developing Tattoo Recognition Research

Published

March 31, 2015

Author(s)

Mei L. Ngan, Patrick J. Grother

Abstract

Tattoos have been used for many years to assist law enforcement in investigations leading to the identification of criminals and victims. While tattoos lack the distinctiveness and permanence characteristics of a primary biometric trait, it is an elective biometric trait that contains more disciminative information to support person identification than the traditional soft biometrics such as age, gender and race. While some research has been done in the area of image-based tattoo detection and retrieval, it is not a mature domain. There are no common datasets to evaluate and develop operationally-relevant tattoo recognition applications. To address this shortcoming, the Tattoo Recognition Technology Challenge (Tatt-C) database was developed as an initial tattoo research corpus that addresses use cases derived from operational scenarios. The Tatt-C database represents an initial attempt to provide a set of ground-truthed tattoo images focused on, but not limited to, five primary use cases. This paper describes the details of the database along with the experimental protocols and test cases that should be followed, which will enable consistent performance comparison of tattoo recognition methods.

Proceedings Title

IEEE International Conference on Identity, Security and Behavior Analysis

Conference Dates

March 23-25, 2015

Conference Location

Hung Hom

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

tattoo recognition, tattoo detection, tattoo database, tattoo retrieval

Citation

Ngan, M. and Grother, P. (2015), Tattoo Recognition Technology - Challenge (Tatt-C): An Open Tattoo Database for Developing Tattoo Recognition Research, IEEE International Conference on Identity, Security and Behavior Analysis, Hung Hom, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917896 (Accessed April 25, 2026)

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