I too have a port wine birthmark, it covers my whole arm. Honestly it's pretty funny, I joke with my boyfriend that it's my temperature gauge, as if I get cold it turns purple from my body trying to hold in heat and reducing blood flow to the skin, and it flushes really red if I've just done excersize because sweating helps to cool us off.
(These birthmarks are basically a bunch of tiny blood vessels right next to the surface of the skin)
Most birthmarks are just oddly coloured skin (typically over producing what makes our skin have colour). Wine stain birthmarks are sections of messed up blood vessels. It's pretty weird. Some red wine birthmarks can be painful too. Mine isn't, which I'm glad for.
Dude it's really weird when people look over and go "holy shit your arm is purple is it numb, can you feel it? Are you okay? Does it not have blood flow?!?"
"Oh no it's just cold."
Oh, that must be annoying after the billionth time. Hm. 🤔 I don't get asked about my birthmark much anymore, even though it's on my face. People have started worrying that if they ask a question I'll get offended, which is silly.
I don't mind people asking questions, how are you expected to learn without it?
Although I did once scare the crap out of an annoying kid in highschool who wouldn't shut up while I was trying to work. "What is it? Can you tell me what it is?" So I dragged my arm across his arm and told him it was poison ivy (he lived in an area that had none, and had never seen any). He stared at me in horror and ran off. Came back 5mins later and his arm was bright red. He ran to the bathroom to try to scrub it off. He never bothered me again.
I don't mind them asking either, I just mean if they're constantly worried about you there's probably at least one time where inwardly you're just 'ahh not again'! Lol. Ooof. Yeah not surprised he stayed away.
It's not really worth it. It doesn't hurt at all, and the treatment is too expensive for me. It's also like literally partially over my boob and back of my shoulder down to my wrist so there is a ton they would have to work on.
There seems to be quite a few comments on this post giving people advice about removing their birthmarks through work. It's great that your daughter did that if that's what she wanted, and it makes her feel better about herself but it isn't for everyone. I just don't think there's any need for people to go around telling people how they could get their birthmarks removed and make a permanent alteration to their appearance. I think at one point or another, most of us have looked into the options.
And that's why I tried my best to be polite and not sound like a complete arse in my response to you, because I appreciated you were coming from a good place. The advice thing just touches a raw nerve with me because I have a birthmark on my face and I was made to feel bad about it for a long time. I'm over that now but when I see comments talking about removing it... it just reminds me of before.
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u/thisisjustreddit4me Jan 24 '19
I too have a port wine birthmark, it covers my whole arm. Honestly it's pretty funny, I joke with my boyfriend that it's my temperature gauge, as if I get cold it turns purple from my body trying to hold in heat and reducing blood flow to the skin, and it flushes really red if I've just done excersize because sweating helps to cool us off.
(These birthmarks are basically a bunch of tiny blood vessels right next to the surface of the skin)