The field‐ion microscope technique has been employed to determine directly a radiation damage profile, with atomic resolution, in a platinum specimen which had been irradiated at 60 K with 20‐keV Kr+ions to a fluence of 5×1012cm−2. It is shown that the microscopic spatial vacancy distribution (radiation damage profile) is directly related to the elastically deposited energy profile. The experimentally constructed radiation damage profile is compared with a theoretical damage profile—calculated employing the transport of ions in matter (TRIM) Monte Carlo code—and excellent agreement is obtained between the two. Thus, it is demonstrated that it is possible to go directly from a microscopic spatial distribution of vacancies to a continuous radiation damage profile.