Skin raised and red
June 10, 2008 4:45 PM   Subscribe

Ariana Page Russell: My own skin frequently blushes and swells. I have dermatographia, a condition in which one’s immune system exhibits hypersensitivity, via skin, that releases excessive amounts of histamine, causing capillaries to dilate and welts to appear (lasting about thirty minutes) when the skin’s surface is lightly scratched. This allows me to painlessly draw patterns and words on my skin, which I then photograph. Images (click skin one or skin two). Interview.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (33 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
That's beautiful, but it also makes me so uncomfortable that my testes try and retreat into my abdomen.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:48 PM on June 10, 2008


A kid in my history class in high school had the same thing! But he never got this artistic with it.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 4:54 PM on June 10, 2008


The constellation one where she connected her freckles made me laugh.
posted by ColdChef at 4:56 PM on June 10, 2008


I thought this was a double, but my memory was in fact triggered by this recent AskMe. Anyway, neat.
posted by GuyZero at 4:59 PM on June 10, 2008


Oh yeah I get this a bit... everyone has their own triggers it says. Sex, booze and drugs are mine. Ze life of an arteest for me, eh?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:59 PM on June 10, 2008


That's beautiful, but it also makes me so uncomfortable that my testes try and retreat into my abdomen.

That's because they're afraid you're going to try to draw patterns and words on them.
posted by davejay at 5:03 PM on June 10, 2008


i'll bet there's a fetish for this.
posted by msconduct at 5:04 PM on June 10, 2008


This happens to me quite often - seems worse in hot weather, too. For example, just last week - I simply picked up a couple of heavy boxes, and the insides of my arms had welts. My Dad said "You must have some kind of super immune system!" - which I pooh-poohed at the time, but now I plan on counting it as one of my mutant powers.
posted by Liosliath at 5:13 PM on June 10, 2008


I have this, it's worst when I'm very stressed out, and I had no idea there was a name for it.

I have totally drawn on myself. I wish I'd thought to turn it into an art project.
posted by padraigin at 5:15 PM on June 10, 2008


I had something close to that when I was younger, too. Especially in hot weather. I had a girlfriend who would draw and write on my back with her fingernail.
posted by tkchrist at 5:33 PM on June 10, 2008


Yay! We killed it! During my lunch hour!

(stomps off)
posted by Samizdata at 5:48 PM on June 10, 2008


I now know what to do with the welts my wife gets when she's upset with me!
posted by photoslob at 5:53 PM on June 10, 2008


I now know what to do with the welts my wife gets when she's upset with me!

I thought those were from falling down the stairs. hem nothin to see here
posted by grobstein at 5:58 PM on June 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Erotic. Is it wrong that I want a lover whose skin does this? I could spend a few lifetimes on a desert island just ...drawing away.

Would you like to see my etchings?
posted by loquacious at 6:11 PM on June 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


A coworker of mine has the same reaction whenever she touches rats. I've been begging her to let me draw designs on her with one, but she keeps saying no :(
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:27 PM on June 10, 2008


Erotic. Is it wrong that I want a lover whose skin does this?

Yeah, it reminded me of The Pillowbook and the way words were written on skin.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:28 PM on June 10, 2008


A coworker of mine has the same reaction whenever she touches rats. I've been begging her to let me draw designs on her with one, but she keeps saying no :(

Touches rats? Is it safe to assume she spends time in a lab. ... With rats?
posted by notreally at 6:32 PM on June 10, 2008


Touches rats? Is it safe to assume she spends time in a lab. ... With rats?

People keep rats as pets, you know, and they've been doing it for something like 150 years or more if you only count the "fancy" variety. This domesticated variety is very smart, friendly and make great pets. They'll follow you around like a dog, you can train them, and they'll even come when called - unless they're busy stealing something shiny and hiding it behind the couch. I've had more rats than I can count over the years. It's said that Beatrice Potter didn't start writing her children's stories until she had a pet rat during the initial English craze for them. (Even the Queen had one, then.)

The undomesticated variety is even smarter, but usually not the best as a pet.

Also: POINTY KITTY.
posted by loquacious at 6:50 PM on June 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


I thought that happened to everyone when they touched rats? That always happened to me with my brothers pet rat.
posted by puke & cry at 6:52 PM on June 10, 2008


notreally: yep..lab rats of the rescued from foul deeds variety (warning: self-link youtube vid)

loquacious: That's as far from wrong as you can get.

HA! POINTY KITTY!

Seriously, I'll offer to buy my coworker lunch for a month just to draw on her with a rat. Even if I don't get anywhere near Ariana Page Russell's work, it will have been worth it.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:23 PM on June 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Very cool and very cringe-y. Poison ivy flashbacks. I wonder if her art itches?
posted by flotson at 8:34 PM on June 10, 2008


A friend of mine in high school had this, but the welts didn't last as long (and we didn't think to try making any patterns). Very interesting, even if some of the pictures make my skin crawl a little.

Not to add to the derail, but: yay rats! I've wanted one as a pet for a while now, but circumstances have prevented it so far. :(

Another point in favor of pet rats: They are ticklish.

posted by kosher_jenny at 8:48 PM on June 10, 2008


I found out the name for my skin condition from that recent AskMe! As a young child, my parents took me to the doctor for an allergy test; since dermatographia isn't something that can be cured, my parents couldn't understand why the doctor couldn't fix me. They took me to a Mexican witch doctor who gave them dried snake meat to feed me. I rebelled after the first few times because of the taste (ick, snake jerky), and to this day, when I visit my parents and my skin reacts, they tell me I could have been cured if only I'd finished my snake-heavy diet as a child.
posted by lychee at 8:49 PM on June 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


Tattoos come and go.
posted by tellurian at 9:50 PM on June 10, 2008


tellurian: I researched that link for like ten minutes, and then got sad when I realized that it was only a concept.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 10:15 PM on June 10, 2008


Snake is tasty! Well, tastier than gator anyway.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:30 PM on June 10, 2008


Erotic. Is it wrong that I want a lover whose skin does this?
posted by loquacious at 8:11 PM on June 10


If it is wrong, it must be fairly common, because that was my first thought as well.
posted by Ynoxas at 10:57 PM on June 10, 2008


Skin disorders like this are no joke. Mastocytosis is a similar form of histamine producing skin disorder, but the histamine producing mastocytes are concentrated in small red or brown spots. The disorder can range from barely noticeable to disfiguring. Theodore Maiman, the physicist who invented the laser, died a year ago of a rarer adult form of the disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract.

Cromolyn Sodium is the only approved topical treatment for mastocytosis available in the US, but it isn't sold in isolated form. It could probably be used for dermatographia as well. One way to get cromolyn is to make a cream out of an over-the-counter allergy medication.
posted by Araucaria at 10:59 PM on June 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


Fuck, I let that phillps site load it the background while I was watching tv and thought I was about to be abducted by aliens or something.
posted by puke & cry at 11:00 PM on June 10, 2008


I have this during high allergy season. It's not sexy, really--the welts itch like hell, and scratching them, well, you can see how that cycle would go. I have to be careful about casually scratching my face, you know, that little itch on the forehead, or folks will be staring at me for the next half hour. Antihistamines take care of it, mostly.
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:23 AM on June 11, 2008


-the welts itch like hell

According to the interview, they don't itch for Ariana or otherwise bother her, which no doubt enables her to actually do this.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:31 AM on June 11, 2008


My husband has this, I don't think they itch. I like to write "help, let me out!" on his stomach. Also notes for him to read later. I thought he was allergic to me when we first met, now I just think of him as a walking Etch-A-Sketch (and my beloved husband, of course).
posted by biscotti at 4:20 PM on June 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Mine don't itch, thank god.
posted by Liosliath at 4:39 PM on June 11, 2008


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