“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
“My name is Emily, I’m 17 years old and I live in Missouri. I will be starting my senior year of high school this fall, and hope to be an English teacher when I grow up. I started noticed the bumps on my skin about a month before my diagnosis. They were white, and looked
People ask me all the time if there’s a cure for dermatographia. Unfortunately it’s not such an easy answer. Everyone’s triggers and causes are so different that what reduces one person’s itchiness might do nothing for another. This makes it super hard to know what to tell people who ask me how to lessen the
Vivian Lin is an industrial design student at Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver, Canada), and is always inspired by her experience in her own skin. While she doesn’t have dermatographia, she is still sensitive to the way people perceive others with a skin condition. She grew up with severe
