The arteries of the face and scalp.
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| colspan="2" |
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| colspan="2" |
|- class="hiddenStructure"
|Latin
|colspan="2"|a. occipitalis
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|[[List of subjects in Gray's Anatomy:144#Gray.27s_page_.23|Gray's]]
|colspan="2"|[subject #144 ]
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|Supplies
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|- class="hiddenStructure"
|From
|colspan="2"|external carotid artery
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|To
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|Vein
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|- class="hiddenStructure"
|MeSH
|colspan="2"|[]
|- class="hiddenStructure"
|Dorlands/Elsevier
|colspan="2"|[/]
|}
The occipital artery arise opposite the facial artery, its path is below the posterior belly of digastic to the occipital region. This artery supplies blood to the back of the scalp and sterno-mastoid muscles. Other muscles it supplies are deep muscles in the back and neck.
It then changes its course and runs vertically upward, pierces the fascia connecting the cranial attachment of the Trapezius with the Sternocleidomastoideus, and ascends in a tortuous course in the superficial fascia of the scalp, where it divides into numerous branches, which reach as high as the vertex of the skull and anastomose with the posterior auricular and superficial temporal arteries.
