Is it possible to scratch the screen iPad2 fingernail?

if your actually seeing discolouration under the screen then it looks like its been pressed pretty hard.

As the the screen, it can be scratched by anything that is sharp.

The screen on the ipad is capacative this means it uses the skin to detect a touch, not pressure.

From a wiki

As the human body is also an electrical conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the screen's electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance.

Using a nail or anything else other than the skin of your finger is really not going to work correctly.

The screen can still be scratched even with gorilla glass, nothing is 100% scratch proof atm.

Yeah discoloration usually occurs when either something with alot of weight behind it is possible left on the device, or pressed to hard onto the screen.

One other possability is that the damage is not from the screen but from underneath the screen, hense the discoloration. Possibly a faulty repair, unauthorised apple repair.

Very hard to know without a hands on, on the ipad.

Why don't you take it into an Apple store and see what they think .

If you where to call Apple on phone , they may let you send it to them. I have always found Apple a very good company to deal with.

As another poster indicated, the screen appears that significant pressure was applied to the screen. If you push on the screen hard enough, you can force the screen's back into the circuitry causing the discoloration. The effect can be seen if you press on an LCD TV screen. Regardless, is there any reason that you haven't returned it to the placed from which you purchased it?

Do it. If U have.inserted. with a layer on the screen.