For those who are interested in learning more about urticaria, news reports can be instructive. On occasion, online news articles discuss incidents involving unusual manifestations of hives. News of this nature can be enlightening for a hives patient or even for a medical student, because it describes some of the symptoms of hives in a manner that is impossible to forget.

Urticaria News Article on Skin Writing Artist

One example that comes to mind is a brief piece describing a hives artist. This artist essentially uses her hives symptoms to produce breathtaking artwork. She is a woman with a form of hives called dermatographic urticaria or skin writing.

In this form of hives, the exertion of pressure on the skin results in the formation of a welt on the area of skin where the pressure was applied. Thus, if a dime is pressed onto the sensitive skin, a dime-shaped welt will appear on it shortly thereafter.  Likewise, if one uses a finger to trace the letter A onto the skin, then an A-shaped welt will subsequently appear on the skin. It is not unusual that an artist with dermatographic urticaria would use her skin as a canvas of sorts for calligraphic welts. Nor is it surprising that her story would make it into an urticaria news article.

The welts last only 30 or so minutes, but that is long enough to take pictures and immortalize the hives. News articles on this artist, together with pictures of her art would undoubtedly appeal to creative people everywhere.

Dermatographic urticaria is actually a very common form of hives. The sensitivity to pressure tends to be triggered by allergens, but can also be attributed to the diet. It often occurs in people in their teens, early twenties and middle age. The duration of the condition can be as short as a few months or as long as a few decades.

Hives News Article on Rapidly-Aging Woman

There are other curious manifestations of urticaria. News articles have focused a lot on the case of a 27-year old Vietnamese woman who seems to have aged prematurely. The diagnosis, finally announced by specialist doctors, is chronic autoimmune urticaria, likely complicated by the use of corticosteroids and traditional forms of medicine. For the woman, who has suffered from the condition from the age of 12, it is probably a relief to find out that she has a well-known condition- hives. News of the diagnosis will hopefully help to dispel the social stigma she has experienced.