Melanoma is a malignant cutaneous cancer derived from the epidermal melanocytes, with high potency of metastasis and high lethal rate. Melanoma epigenetics research is gaining fast progress and many new achievements have been made in areas such as gene promoter methylation, histone modification, miRNA inhibiting target gene and lncRNA regulating the structure of chromatin. As the alteration of epigenetics may cast new light on cure of melanoma since it can contribute to clinic diagnosis and drug development. This paper reviewed the progression in melanoma epigenetics, with special attention on cell function analysis such as cell cycle, cell apoptosis, invasion and migration, clone formation, signal pathway, and elaborated how the change of melanoma epigenetics influences tumor cell genesis, progression and metastasis. We also discussed the prospect of epigenetics research in melanoma precaution, diagnosis, therapy, progression and the prognosis monitoring.