Many of you already know my skin writing story, but here’s some background for those of you that aren’t familiar with me yet. I was officially diagnosed with dermatographia back in 2004 (wow it’s been 13 years!), but I had it for close to 10 years before then. Like many other people with dermatographia, I
By: ariana
Recently I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. Basically what that means is I have an under-active thyroid. It’s an autoimmune disorder, similar to dermatographia in that the immune system is involved. With Hashimoto’s the immune system starts attacking the thyroid gland because of inflammation and a number of other factors. [Some say it’s actually caused
Healing is an amazing thing. It’s what we all think we want, right? To be relieved of our maladies, sicknesses, sadness and discomfort. To be healthy, to be free to create with less self-consciousness. What I’m realizing is healing doesn’t necessarily mean relief from all of these things. It does bring attention to the
“My skin inspires me in a way that I can’t really put into words. It gives me a whole range of opportunities, not only in learning how my body and my skin work, but my place as an artist and discovering the things that interest me to work with. The skin is the largest
Being an artist means that we have the power to create something from nothing, so we need to use that gift. Share it, honor it and respect it. Accept the responsibility we have to make art, and how that art impacts others. It’s really amazing to have an idea and make it visible–make it
I was so honored to be a participant in the 2016 TEDxUNC event, Bodies: Being Human, earlier this year! There were some amazing speakers, and I had such a great time with the students too. I was super nervous about the whole thing (there were 1400 people in the audience at a huge auditorium on the
