A dimple on the stomach is almost always a spot where the skin is tethered to something deeper, whether that is a natural band of connective tissue, a pocket of fat that has thinned or hardened, or a scar you may not remember getting. The causes range from completely harmless anatomy to aftereffects of injury, injections, or surgery, and sorting out which one applies to you usually comes down to where exactly the dimple sits and how long it has been there.
Natural Anatomy That Creates Stomach Dimples
The most common and least concerning explanation is simply the way your abdominal muscles are built. The rectus abdominis, the paired muscles running vertically down the front of your abdomen, are not smooth sheets of tissue. They are crossed by fibrous bands called tendinous inscriptions, which break each muscle into segments. These inscriptions are the reason a well-defined midsection shows distinct “blocks” rather than one long ridge. A comprehensive review of these structures found that the current literature on them is surprisingly thin, but their clinical relevance is well recognized, particularly in guiding surgeons during reconstructive procedures.1PubMed Central. Tendinous Inscriptions of the Rectus Abdominis: A Comprehensive Review
Each tendinous inscription is firmly attached to the front sheath of the muscle. That attachment means the overlying skin and fat get pulled inward slightly at those crossing points. In people with moderate body fat, this pull can create visible dimples or shallow grooves on the stomach surface, even without much muscle definition. The number and exact position of these inscriptions vary from person to person. Most people have three, but two or four is not unusual, and they do not always sit at perfectly symmetrical heights on each side. So if you notice a dimple that sits roughly in line with where your ab muscles run, and it has been there as long as you can remember, there is a good chance you are simply seeing a tendinous inscription doing its job.
How Body Fat Distribution Creates Indentations
Not every stomach dimple lines up neatly with muscle anatomy. Subcutaneous fat, the layer between your skin and your abdominal wall, is not a uniform slab. It is divided into compartments by connective tissue bands called septae, which anchor the skin to deeper structures. Where those bands are short and taut, the skin sits closer to the muscle. Where the fat compartments are fuller, the skin puffs out slightly. The interplay between these two creates subtle contour variations that most people never notice unless one spot stands out.
Weight changes make these variations more obvious. When you gain fat, the compartments fill unevenly, and some areas expand more than others. When you lose weight, the compartments shrink unevenly, too. A dimple that appeared after significant weight loss may simply be a spot where the skin re-draped itself over a shorter or tighter connective band while the surrounding fat thinned out. This is the same basic mechanism behind cellulite on the thighs, just happening in a different location. People who have gone through large swings in body weight are especially likely to notice new dimples or asymmetries on the abdomen, because the skin and fat layer have been stretched and then allowed to contract, and that process is never perfectly uniform.
Dimples from Insulin Injections
If you use injectable medications, particularly insulin, and the dimple sits near a spot where you regularly inject, the explanation may be lipodystrophy. This is a well-known complication of repeated injections into the same area of skin. It takes two forms. Lipohypertrophy is a localized buildup of fatty tissue that creates a lump. Lipoatrophy is the opposite: a loss of fat under the skin that leaves a depression or dimple. Both have been recognized by physicians and patients for decades.2PubMed Central. Lipodystrophy in Insulin-Treated Subjects and Other Injection-Site Skin Reactions: Are We Sure Everything is Clear?
The abdomen is one of the most common injection sites for insulin, and people tend to develop habits about exactly where they inject. When the same patch of tissue gets needled repeatedly, the local fat can either overgrow or atrophy, depending on the person and the medication. Lipoatrophy, the kind that creates a visible dimple, was more common with older insulin formulations but still occurs with modern ones. It can also happen at injection sites for other medications, including certain biologics used for autoimmune conditions.
The practical takeaway is rotation. Rotating your injection site systematically, never returning to the same exact spot within the same couple of weeks, significantly reduces the risk of both lumps and dimples. If you already have a dimple from repeated injections, avoiding that area entirely going forward sometimes allows the fat to partially fill back in over months, though deep or longstanding depressions may persist.
Trauma, Surgery, and Scar Tissue
Any injury to the abdominal area that damages the subcutaneous fat can leave behind a dimple. The mechanism is straightforward: when fat cells are destroyed by blunt force, surgical incision, or even a hard fall, the body replaces them with scar tissue, which contracts and pulls the overlying skin inward. The result is a focal depression that may be firm to the touch. One published case report described how blunt trauma with subsequent fat atrophy and necrosis can manifest as a subcutaneous fat defect, and in some cases, even chronic pain in the area.3PubMed. Symptomatic fat necrosis and lipoatrophy of the posterior pelvis following trauma
This does not have to be dramatic trauma. Minor procedures like biopsies, drain placements, or even deep corticosteroid injections can leave small dimples if the underlying fat is damaged. Laparoscopic surgery, which involves small incisions on the abdomen, sometimes leaves dimples at the port sites, not from the skin scar itself but from the adhesion that forms between the skin and the deeper fascial layer. These adhesions act like tiny tethers, pulling the skin down at a single point.
If your stomach dimple appeared after surgery or a specific injury and has not changed in months, it is very likely a scar-related tethering. A dermatologist or plastic surgeon can sometimes release these adhesions through a minor procedure called subcision, where a needle is used to sever the fibrous band under the skin, allowing the dimple to flatten out. Results are variable, and deep adhesions may partially reform, but the technique is established and relatively low-risk.
Dimples After Liposuction or Body Contouring
Cosmetic procedures on the abdomen carry their own dimpling risks. Liposuction, in particular, can leave behind uneven contours if too much fat is removed from one spot or if the cannula damages the connective framework that supports the overlying skin. Aggressive liposuction near the dermis can cause dimpling, bruising, and even permanent skin changes.4IntechOpen. Complications and Solutions for Post-Operative Liposuction Deformities
Post-liposuction dimples tend to be more noticeable than the natural kind because they represent a sudden structural change in the fat layer rather than a gradual one. The skin over a liposuctioned area needs to retract and re-drape itself evenly, and if the fat removal was uneven, the skin has no choice but to follow the new underlying contour, dips and all. Wearing compression garments after the procedure is standard advice partly because sustained pressure encourages the skin to settle more uniformly, reducing the odds of dimples forming as the area heals.
If you had liposuction or a tummy tuck and noticed a dimple appearing weeks or months later, it is worth consulting the surgeon who performed the procedure. Some post-procedure dimples improve as swelling fully resolves, which can take up to a year. Others are structural and may need a revision procedure. Fat grafting, where a small amount of fat is injected under the depression, is one common correction. The earlier a structural dimple is identified, the more options you typically have.
Dimples Present from Birth
Some stomach dimples have been there since day one. Congenital skin dimples are small depressions that can appear on virtually any part of the body, and while they are most commonly discussed in the context of the cheeks, chin, or sacral area, they can and do show up on the abdomen. A study describing newborns with congenital skin dimples noted that these depressions can result from mechanical, metabolic, or genetic factors, or even from physical pressure during fetal development.5PubMed. Intrauterine big toenail imprints: A new cause of congenital skin dimples
A congenital dimple on the stomach is typically shallow, stable in size, and has never changed in appearance. Most are entirely harmless. The main exception is a midline dimple located very low on the abdomen or near the base of the spine, which in rare cases can signal an underlying spinal anomaly. Pediatricians routinely check for sacral dimples in newborns for this reason. If you have always had a small dimple on your stomach that has never grown, never hurt, and never changed color, it is overwhelmingly likely to be a benign congenital feature, essentially a minor quirk of how your skin and subcutaneous tissue formed before birth.
Pressure-Induced Fat Loss
There is a less well-known cause of skin depressions that usually affects the thighs but can, in principle, occur on the abdomen: pressure-related lipoatrophy, sometimes called lipoatrophia semicircularis. This condition involves localized loss of subcutaneous fat in a band or patch where sustained mechanical pressure has been applied. A report on ten patients with this condition concluded that repeated pressure from chair edges on the thighs was the likely cause.6PubMed. Is lipoatrophia semicircularis induced by pressure?
On the stomach, prolonged pressure from a belt, waistband, or desk edge pressing into the abdomen could theoretically produce a similar effect, though documented cases in that location are rare. The hallmark of pressure-induced lipoatrophy is a band-shaped or linear depression that follows the line of whatever was pressing into the skin. If your dimple is more of a horizontal groove that lines up with where your belt or pants sit, this is a possibility worth considering. Switching to looser clothing or adjusting the source of pressure often allows the area to recover, though it can take months for the fat to fill back in.
When to Have a Dimple Evaluated
Most stomach dimples do not need medical attention. The ones worth getting checked share a few features. A dimple that appeared recently and is growing, particularly if it is firm or hard underneath, deserves evaluation. Skin dimpling over a lump can sometimes be a sign of a deeper mass pulling on the tissue. A dimple that is painful, inflamed, or discharging fluid suggests an underlying process like an abscess or an infected cyst. And any dimple accompanied by skin changes like puckering, retraction, or discoloration warrants a closer look, because while these findings are most discussed in the context of breast tissue, the same principles apply to the abdominal wall: new tethering of skin to deeper structures, when it happens without an obvious cause, is something a doctor should assess.
For dimples that are clearly longstanding, painless, and stable, a formal diagnosis is rarely necessary. If the appearance bothers you, a dermatologist can evaluate the depth and likely cause and discuss whether subcision, filler injection, or simple observation makes the most sense.
Body Image and Skin Irregularities
It is worth acknowledging that noticing a dimple on your stomach often comes with a layer of self-consciousness. Visible skin irregularities, even minor ones, can affect how people feel about their bodies. Research on skin conditions and body image has consistently found higher levels of body dissatisfaction among people with visible skin differences compared to those without.7PubMed Central. Body image and mental health in chronic skin conditions: A psychosomatic perspective from a systematic review While a single stomach dimple is a far cry from a chronic skin disease, the psychological mechanics are not entirely different: your eye catches something that does not match the smooth contour you expect, and it becomes hard to un-notice.
Social media has amplified this by creating an unrealistic baseline for what abdominal skin “should” look like. Filtered and posed images almost never show natural contour variation, tendinous inscriptions, uneven fat distribution, or the minor scarring that most adults accumulate over a lifetime. In reality, very few abdomens are uniformly smooth. If your stomach dimple is not painful, not changing, and not associated with any deeper lump, the most important thing you can do is recognize it for what it most likely is: a normal variation in the way skin, fat, and connective tissue interact, with no more medical significance than a freckle.