Objective To investigate histopathological and ultrastructural differences between melasma tissues and normal skin tissues around pigmented nevus. Methods Eight patients with melasma and 16 patients with facial pigmented nevus were included in this study. Two millimeter punch biopsies were taken from melasma lesions and adjacent normal skin of facial pigmented nevus. Biopsy specimens were then subjected to hematoxylin?eosin (HE) staining, Fonton?Masson staining, Verhoeff?van Gieson staining, and immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibodies HMB45 and NKI/beteb. Transmission electron microscopy was used to observe the tissue specimens. Semi?quantitative analysis was performed under a light microscope, and quantitative analysis by using a computerized image analysis system. Results Histopathological study revealed increased number of melanin granules mainly in the basal and prickle cell layers, sometimes in the dermis, in melasma tissues compared with normal skin tissues. Melanocytes were only observed in the epidermis of melasma tissues. Compared with normal skin tissues, melasma tissues showed no significant difference in the quantity of melanocytes, but a significant increase in the volume, staining intensity and dendrite number of melanocytes. In all of the 8 patients with melasma, mild to moderate lymphocytic infiltration was observed in the superficial dermis and around capillaries, with moderate telangiectasis in the superficial dermis. Electron microscopy revealed that there were more melanosomes in melanocytes and keratinocytes, and melanocyte dendrites extended into the dermis in melasma tissues. Conclusions Among the 8 patients, there were only two types of melasma, i.e., epidermal melasma and mixed melasma, and no dermal melasma was found. Inflammation and telangiectasis may induce or aggravate melasma.