I found out that I had this condition yesterday. Here’s my history.
I’ve always noticed that I will sometimes get what looks like an insect bite, a round and raised part of the skin in the same place on my hand every time.
At first I thought that it was a real insect bite but when it kept on happening in exactly the same place each time, I thought perhaps not. And I also noticed that when I scratched the back of my hand in this area and nearby that it might sometimes reveal even more.
By accident, I looked up what “hives” were yesterday. And finally I found what my condition is: “dermatographic urticaria”. Apparently 5% of people have this so I am not alone.
It is basically the skin responding to a stimulus (in this case, a pressure of some sort) and the mast cells within releasing a histamine. You normally see this with insect bites but I seem to get it even without them.
The weird thing is that I can’t reproduce them every time. If I see one, then I can scratch the rest of the back of my hand and produce a huge breakout.
But people who have this problem bad can reproduce it whenever they want. Some people even call it “skin writing” because they can literally write an essay on the surface of their skin! Thankfully, it only lasts about 30 minutes or so.
Personally, I find that it occurs when I scratch the back of my hand with the stubble from my chin! But, like I said, it only happens sometimes and I can’t reproduce it on demand. Perhaps my urticaria is caused by a combination of scatching and other factors, such as stress or heat.