A common worry before fat grafting is the scar: where will it be, on the face or where the fat is taken from? The reassuring, honest answer is that fat grafting is done through tiny cannula entry points rather than a long incision — small punctures both where the fat is harvested and where it is placed. This page explains exactly where those points sit, why they leave so little, and how the small wounds settle over the weeks.
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Director Baek In-soo, thank you so much. Thanks to you I keep getting told I look younger — it feels like I’ve gone back to my younger days.
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I started with under-eye fat repositioning — the director and the manager are genuinely kind and good at what they do. I’ll be back.
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Fat grafting does not use a long incision. Instead it is done through tiny cannula entry points — small punctures just big enough for a thin cannula to pass through. There are two sets of them. First, at the donor area, usually the abdomen or thigh, where the fat is gently harvested by liposuction through one or two small punctures. Second, at the recipient site on the face, where the purified fat is placed through similarly small entry points, often tucked into a natural crease or a hidden spot.
Because the whole procedure runs through these small openings rather than an open cut, there is no scar line to run across the skin. At Garnet the harvested fat is prepared as micro-fat and, where appropriate, supplemented with the patient's own PRP before being layered into areas such as the under-eye, the eyelid or the mid-face. The entry points needed to do this are small by design, which is why fat grafting appeals to patients whose main concern is visible scarring.
If you want the full picture of how the procedure is planned and performed, the fat grafting overview walks through the technique, and this page then goes deeper on the one thing most patients ask about: the entry points and how they heal.
Several things work in your favour. First, size: a cannula entry point is a small puncture, not an incision, so there is very little wound to heal and little to leave a mark. Second, placement: the recipient entry points on the face are chosen to sit in creases or inconspicuous spots, and the donor punctures on the abdomen or thigh are placed where clothing covers them. Third, the gentle technique: harvesting and placing fat through fine cannulas keeps the openings small, so the marks that do form are usually faint.
This is different from procedures that need an open incision to lift or reposition tissue — fat grafting adds volume through small ports, so it avoids a scar line altogether. If you are comparing fat grafting with other ways of adding volume, such as filler, the trade-offs in longevity and approach are covered on the fat grafting versus filler page. For adding your own tissue with minimal marks, the cannula approach is the discreet route.
The honest caveat: 'minimal' does not mean 'nothing'. In the early weeks the donor area can be bruised and firm, and the small entry points may look pink before they fade. On the face, the swelling from the grafted fat is far more noticeable than any entry point. What matters is that these punctures typically settle into faint marks that most people never notice once healed.
In the first one to two weeks, the small entry points are closed and the donor area is bruised, firm and a little swollen. The punctures look fresh — pink and slightly raised — and the harvested area may feel tender. This is normal healing; the bruising is the body reabsorbing the small amount of blood that follows any liposuction. Because the openings are so small, they usually need little or no suture removal, and any dressing is light.
Over the following weeks to about three months, the entry points flatten and fade from pink toward the surrounding skin tone. The donor area softens as the firmness settles, and any lumpiness there smooths out. On the face, this is also the window in which some of the grafted fat that does not survive is reabsorbed, so the volume you see keeps adjusting — the healing of the entry points and the settling of the graft happen alongside each other.
By a few months to a year, the small marks have usually faded to faint spots that are hard to find, on both the face and the donor area. Because the same surgeon at Garnet reviews you at 1, 3 and 6 months, the entry points and donor area are checked directly at each stage, and any guidance is tailored to how yours are actually settling. The fat grafting swelling and bruising page covers that side of recovery in detail.
Good outcomes are part technique and part aftercare. Keep the entry points clean and dry as instructed, avoid picking at any small scabs, and protect them from the sun once closed — even a small mark can darken with ultraviolet exposure, so shade and sun protection help in the first months. On the donor area, wearing any recommended compression garment supports the tissue and helps swelling settle evenly, which also helps the small punctures there heal neatly.
Be gentle with the grafted area of the face early on: avoid heavy pressure, vigorous massage or sleeping face-down until your surgeon says it is safe, because the newly placed fat needs an undisturbed blood supply to settle. Avoid heavy lifting and vigorous exercise in the early weeks, since these can worsen bruising at the donor site. Your surgeon may give specific guidance on the donor area and the face separately, because they heal on slightly different timelines.
Smoking and poorly controlled health conditions slow healing generally, so an honest medical history at your consultation helps your surgeon plan around them. For international patients, this aftercare can be guided remotely — you can keep sending photos of both the face and the donor area after you fly home so they are reviewed at each milestone. How long the settled volume lasts is covered separately on the how-long-it-lasts page.
Normal, expected findings include bruising and firmness of the donor area, small pink entry points that fade, mild swelling of the grafted area of the face, and some unevenness that smooths as the graft settles. Tenderness at the donor site as it recovers is usually a sign of healing, not failing. These ease week by week over the first months.
Reasons to contact the clinic promptly are different: increasing redness spreading from an entry point, warmth, throbbing pain that worsens rather than eases, discharge or a fever, a sudden collection of blood or marked one-sided swelling, or an entry point that becomes thick, raised and itchy beyond the early months. None of these are common, but they are worth flagging early because they are easiest to manage when caught quickly.
If you are prone to keloid or thickened scars elsewhere on your body, tell your surgeon before surgery — even small punctures can behave differently in skin that scars readily, and it can change how the entry points are placed and followed. A consultation is the right place to raise this, and you can do it from abroad before committing to travel.
Garnet is a single-surgeon clinic in Apgujeong, Seoul. Dr. In-Soo Baek is a board-certified plastic surgeon (Korean medical licence no. 77407) and the only operating surgeon — he plans the entry points, harvests and places the fat himself, and reviews both the face and the donor area at every follow-up. That continuity matters here: the person who knows exactly where each small opening was placed is the same person assessing how the marks and the graft settle at 1, 3 and 6 months.
Because the clinic caps the day at two surgeries and sees one patient per hour, the work is unhurried and meticulous — an advantage for fat grafting, where careful, gentle handling of the fat and small, well-placed entry points do much of the work. Garnet is registered with Korea's foreign-patient programme, so international patients are supported through scheduling, recovery and the remote follow-ups that let both areas be reviewed after you return home.
If your main hesitation is scarring, the most useful next step is an honest pre-assessment. You can send photos and ask exactly where the entry points would sit and how they tend to heal in an online consultation before you plan a trip.
Send photos and your question before you travel. An English-speaking coordinator reviews every enquiry and replies with honest guidance on whether surgery is appropriate, the likely plan and timing.
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