Skin is the largest organ on the human body, and an amazing number of things can go wrong with it. Here’s a menagerie of skin diseases and conditions, all with full-color images that will have you checking yourself in the mirror for weeks. Some of the images are rather graphic. You’ve been warned.
1. Accessory nipples
Accessory nipples are just what they sound like—extra nipples that below the main nipples. They form in a line, as with the row of teats on a pig. Both boys and girls can get them.
2. Rhinophyma
In rhinophyma, your nose grows out of control, becoming bulbous and enflamed. It is a symptom of advanced acne rosacea, which causes chronic flushing of the face. Both Bill Clinton and W.C. Fields had rosacea, and caricatures of the men often show them having round, ruddy, red noses. Many folks with rhinophyma go on to have nose surgery.
3. Black Hairy Tongue
Black hairy tongue doesn’t actually involve hair, nor is it necessarily black. Yeast or bacteria camp out on your tongue, where they produce the characteristic stain and make it appear to be fuzzy. Black is the most common, although many shades are possible, including brown, orange, and white.
4. Leprosy
An ancient disease, leprosy takes years to run its course. It can be 20 years before the first symptoms appear—a stuffy nose, cuts on the skin, and/or numbness—and longer still before the infamous flesh rotting sets in. Interestingly, scholars have been arguing for years (as seen in this 1909 New York Times article) that the leprosy mentioned so prominently in the Bible is not leprosy at all. If treated early, leprosy is highly curable. The World Health Organization has spearheaded a campaign to wipe out leprosy, with efforts now focusing on Brazil, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Nepal.
5. Hypertrichosis Lanuginosa
A diagnosis of hypertrichosis lanuginosa means you have hair growing all over your body—hair that is long, thick, and everywhere it should not be. The illness can be either inherited or acquired. The inherited form, known as Abras Syndrome, goes way back in history, according to medical historians. For instance, an extremely hirsute young man named Petrus Gonzalez from the Canary Islands was captured and “given” as a freak-show gift to the French nobility—who realized that there was nothing wrong with the guy except that he was completely covered in shaggy hair. They gave Gonzalez a castle, where he started family. Their portraits of Gonzalez show that many of his descendants inherited Abras Syndrome from him. The acquired form of hypertrichosis lanuginosa cause the fine hairs that your have on your face and elsewhere to thicken and lengthen. This condition is very rare. When it does occur, it’s often as a result of cancer.
6. Cornu Cutaneum
Imagine looking into the mirror one morning—and seeing a horn sprouting from your head! That’s the unfortunate predicament of folks with cornu cutaneum. These conical growths aren’t actual horns, but rather tumors, sometimes benign and sometimes cancerous. But they look like horns, and that’s the problem. One doctor described a patient with a horn three inches long (despite occasional trimmings) that had been developing for 30 years!
7. Human Papillomavirus
The human papillomavirus, often in the news for its association with cervical cancer, also causes numerous kinds of warts. In one extreme case, an Indonesian man with HPV developed pounds of thick, gray, bark-like warts. Since doctors hacked away the growths, the gentleman, Dede Koswara, has quit his job in a freak show and started searching for a wife.
[Most of these photos came from Johns Hopkins' online DermAtlas, which contains over 10,000 pictures of skin diseases.]
Comments (17)
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Gah- and now i am no longer hungry for lunch…
posted by Karen on 7-21-2009 at 11:40 am
I’m right there with you, Karen, not eating.
Next time I’ll head that graphic content warning. :/
posted by Jen on 7-21-2009 at 11:46 am
unfortunately, I was in the middle of lunch…
fortunately, the last one (though I believe it) doesn’t look real enough and I can pretend ignorance…
Overall, great article though. I’ve seen some of these before and it’s interesting to put them in context (like with Petrus Gonzalez)
posted by Hastings on 7-21-2009 at 12:01 pm
I have the uncontrollable urge to take a shower and scrub really hard… am I alone in this feeling?
recaptcha (not joking): Policeman’s Woody
posted by Kate on 7-21-2009 at 12:09 pm
Wish I hadn’t read that right after lunch! I never heed the warnings. Maybe some day I will take them seriously! BLECH.
posted by Hyacinth on 7-21-2009 at 12:25 pm
I also want to take a long, scalding hot shower and scrub as hard as I can.
I’m still hungry, though.
posted by Melodye on 7-21-2009 at 1:03 pm
I’ve seen worse. Not in person, mind you, but in pictures. For instance, there used to be site online that showed extreme reactions to brown recluse spider bites. I don’t remember the site, but THAT was nasty. Naturally, I looked at all 200+ pictures.
posted by Heather on 7-21-2009 at 3:34 pm
Where’s the link to the 1909 article arguing that the leprosy in the Bible was not really leprosy? I’m intrigued.
The hairy tongue is revolting. Poor people.
posted by Lindsey on 7-21-2009 at 3:57 pm
The last man mentioned was profiled on I believe NatGeo channel, they called him the tree man b/c the warts resembled roots. Interesting show, great topic. Thanks again Mental Floss!
posted by RIchard Y on 7-21-2009 at 7:19 pm
Here is one that I had to do a report on and really skeeved me out: Pemphigus. It causes the skin to slough off when the stuff holding the skin together has an autoimmune reaction against it.
posted by DelRay on 7-21-2009 at 9:43 pm
Most people, over 95%, are naturally immune to leprosy, and nobody is exactly sure about the mode of transmission.
Leprosy doesn’t really cause a person’s appendages to rot and fall off. Instead, it causes nerve damage that leads to loss of sensation. Without sensation to the hands, feet, nose, etc they tend a constant barrage of bumps, bangs, and burns which can eventually lead to disfigurement or loss, either from the trauma itself or secondary infection.
posted by autumn on 7-21-2009 at 10:17 pm
…I fail to see any nipples, let alone extras.
posted by J.Mo on 7-22-2009 at 4:31 am
“sometimes benign and sometimes cancerous”
The two are not neccessarilly mutually exclusive.
posted by mallchin on 7-22-2009 at 8:14 am
My husband has a third nipple. Of course I didn’t believe him when he initially told me! But it’s definitely there. It’s smaller than an average nipple though to where it’s barely even noticeable.
posted by Eulalie on 7-22-2009 at 8:22 am
If you do a bit of side research, you can find more pictures and videos of the man from Java with HPV. It’s fascinating and sad, but he deals with it and he’s having surgery.
posted by Kristen on 7-22-2009 at 9:22 am
Uggh. I saw the TV show of the guy who had human papillomavavirus. He can’t do any physical labor so he has to get money by being in a freak show. Very sad.
posted by Carly on 7-27-2009 at 2:15 pm
when i was a small child, i just loved going to the freak shows. i don’t care if it was ‘right’ to display the otherness of humans, but you gotta admit: it was fascinating. it also had another good side effect. it employed what would’ve been the unemployable. gone are these shows in circus or sideshows in coney island. the deplorable ‘politically correct’ stance has ruined another american mainstay. rats!
posted by dm walsh on 7-29-2009 at 10:13 am