Pimple scars show up as either indentations or raised bumps in the skin, often accompanied by color changes that can range from pink and red to dark brown. The specific look depends on the type of acne that caused the scar, how deep the inflammation went, and your skin tone. Most people searching this question are trying to figure out whether the marks on their face are permanent scars or temporary discoloration, so here’s how to tell the difference and what each type actually looks like.
Flat Marks vs. Permanent Scars
Not every mark left behind by a pimple is a true scar. Whiteheads, blackheads, and standard pimples often leave behind flat discoloration that fades over months without any lasting texture change. You can run your finger over these spots and feel smooth skin. A permanent scar, by contrast, changes the actual structure of your skin. You’ll feel a dip, a ridge, or a rough patch that doesn’t flatten out over time.
Deeper or cystic acne is far more likely to create permanent scars. These are the large, painful bumps that sit well below the skin’s surface and cause significant inflammation in the surrounding tissue. The more the skin’s deeper layers are disrupted, the more likely the healing process will produce visible scarring rather than just temporary discoloration.
Indented Scars: The Most Common Type
The majority of permanent acne scars are indented, meaning the skin dips inward rather than rising up. Dermatologists recognize three distinct shapes, and most people with acne scarring have a mix of all three.
Ice Pick Scars
These are narrow, deep holes in the skin, typically less than 2 millimeters wide. They look like the skin has been punctured with a sharp point, creating tiny crater-like pits. Ice pick scars are most common on the cheeks and are the deepest of the three types relative to their width. Because they’re so narrow, they can be hard to see in photos but quite visible in person, especially under direct light.
Boxcar Scars
Boxcar scars are wider than ice pick scars and have sharply defined, almost vertical edges. Think of them as small rectangular depressions stamped into the skin. They can be shallow or deep, and their flat bottoms and steep walls give them a distinctly angular look. These tend to appear on the cheeks and temples.
Rolling Scars
Rolling scars create a wavy, uneven texture across the skin. Rather than having sharp edges, they produce gentle slopes and dips that give the skin a slightly undulating appearance. They’re caused by bands of scar tissue pulling the surface of the skin downward from underneath. Rolling scars are often the hardest to see in soft, even lighting but become very obvious under angled or overhead light, which casts small shadows across the dips.
Raised Scars
Some acne scars build up excess tissue instead of losing it. Hypertrophic scars are firm, raised bumps that stay within the boundaries of the original breakout. Keloid scars go further, growing beyond the edges of the original pimple into thick, irregular mounds of tissue. Keloids appear shiny and hairless, with a texture that can range from soft to firm and rubbery. They’re most common on the jawline, chest, shoulders, and earlobes.
Raised scars are less common on the face than indented ones, but when they do appear, they tend to be very noticeable because they catch light differently than the surrounding skin and create a visible lump you can feel easily.
How Color Changes Differ by Skin Tone
Acne scarring involves color as much as texture, and what you see depends heavily on your skin tone.
On lighter skin, post-acne marks tend to appear as pink, red, or purplish flat spots. This redness comes from tiny blood vessels near the skin’s surface that expanded during inflammation and haven’t fully returned to normal. These red marks can persist for weeks or months after a pimple heals, even when no permanent texture change has occurred.
On darker skin, the more common pattern is brown or dark brown patches where pimples used to be. This happens because inflammation triggers pigment-producing cells to deposit extra melanin in the affected area. Darker skin tones are significantly more prone to this type of post-inflammatory darkening, and the spots can take longer to fade. This discoloration is flat and smooth to the touch, which distinguishes it from a textured scar, but it can be just as visually prominent.
Both types of discoloration can exist alongside structural scars, so you might see a depressed scar that is also darker or redder than the skin around it.
Why Scars Look Different in Different Lighting
One of the most confusing things about acne scarring is that it can look dramatically different depending on where you are. Indented scars are essentially invisible in flat, diffused light (like an overcast day or a softly lit room) because there are no shadows to reveal the dips. Under harsh overhead lighting or direct sunlight hitting your face at an angle, those same scars cast tiny shadows that make every depression stand out.
This is why scars often look their worst when you glance down at your reflection in a phone screen or car window. You’re looking at your skin from a downward angle with a single overhead light source, which maximizes contrast and shadow depth. That’s also the least realistic view of how other people see your face in normal settings. If you’re trying to assess your own scarring honestly, look at your skin straight on in a normally lit room rather than seeking out the harshest light you can find.
What Different Severity Levels Look Like
Acne scarring ranges from barely noticeable to quite prominent, and dermatologists assess severity based on a combination of scar type, depth, and how much of the face is affected.
- Mild scarring involves a few shallow, flat marks or slight discoloration that’s only visible up close. The skin texture is mostly smooth, with occasional minor dips.
- Moderate scarring includes a noticeable mix of scar types covering a wider area, visible at conversational distance and clearly felt when you touch the skin. Shadows are apparent under normal indoor lighting.
- Severe scarring involves deep ice pick or boxcar scars, widespread rolling texture changes, or raised keloid tissue across significant portions of the face. The skin’s overall contour looks uneven from several feet away.
Most people with acne scarring fall somewhere in the mild to moderate range, with a combination of flat discoloration and a few textured scars concentrated on the cheeks, temples, or jawline. Truly severe scarring is most often associated with a history of deep cystic acne or repeated picking and squeezing of inflamed breakouts.