Photographer Turns Skin Condition into Art

May 15, 2014

(ABC News) – A Brooklyn-based photographer is turning the lens on herself to transform a rare skin disorder into art. Ariana Page Russell has dermatographia, a condition that causes her skin to swell into puffy red welts with the slightest scratch. It’s “not debilitating or life threatening, but can be quite uncomfortable and embarrassing,” Russell writes on her blog, Skin Tome, where she shares stories, art and photography inspired by sensitive skin. “Rather than being ashamed of my skin’s sensitivity, I embrace it and make art with it. What I once saw as burden, I now see as a gift.”