In this communication, we present a study of tip artifacts in atomic force microscope images of nanometer-scale cellular structures created on germanium surfaces by ion bombardment. It is demonstrated that the appearance of a columnar/granular morphology is due to severe image distortion when the tip size is comparable with the mean cell/hole diameter. These tip artifacts can often be deconvoluted by inverting the image and the lateral extension of the cell/hole can be reproduced with reasonable accuracy. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.