Approximately 10% of metastases from all primary neoplasms involve the skin, but for malignant melanoma the figure is 44%.1 In some cases of melanoma this is the presenting feature, either because the primary lesion has regressed completely or because it has been unnoticed or ignored by the patient. Occasionally the melanoma has originated at an extracutaneous site such as the retina or the anal canal.

Metastases from cutaneous melanoma normally present as flesh coloured papules or nodules in the skin. Only about a third are pigmented or ulcerated. We report a case in which cutaneous metastases from a melanoma imitated herpes zoster. This presentation is known as zosteriform metastasis; it also occurs with other neoplasms.