Not many artists get to use their own skin as a canvas, at least without needing to take a permanent approach like tattooing or scarification, but Ariana Page Russell is different. Thanks to a rare skin condition, she is able to create temporary art just be lightly scratching her skin.

As she explains on her website, Ariana suffers from a condition called dermatographic urticaria, an immune system hypersensitivity which causes her skin to become inflamed if it is lightly scratched. She uses the reaction to create patterns on her skin which she then photographs:

My skin is very sensitive and I blush easily. I have dermatographia, a condition in which one’s immune system releases excessive amounts of histamine, causing capillaries to dilate and welts to appear (lasting about thirty minutes) when the hypersensitive skin’s surface is lightly scratched. This allows me to painlessly draw on my skin with just enough time to photograph the results. Even though I can direct this ephemeral response by drawing on it, the reaction is involuntary, much like the uncontrollable nature of a blush.

Source : Ariana Page Russell