vitiligo-is-not-a-trend

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

for a d&d campaign i made an elf with vitiligo, but then i was allowed to make her into a centaur instead like i originally wanted. as long as i don't make her horse body into a paint horse coloration, is this alright?

Yeah that’s fine! An animal with a pattern can still have vitiligo as long as the vitiligo itself ISNT the pattern

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Ok so, if an animal character has patterns its not the best idea to make them a person with vitiligo when you draw them human. Thats perfectly reasonable. But what if this animal has patterns BECAUSE they themself have vitiligo? Is that ok to draw their humanization with it? Just hypothetically speaking

As in the animal with vitiligo is basically remaking an animal based pattern? Like "oh thats not a dalmatian, thats a dog with so much vitiligo the original fur coat looks like spots"??

Honestly that makes me super uncomfortable; please dont do that, once again vitiligo isnt a tool to make certain aesthetics or to treat like makeup or whatever.

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Is it ok for a person with vitiligo to temporarily become a non-human entity? For reference: supernatural mystery genre, this is something that has happened to almost the entire cast, and the character has a lot of agency before and afterwards (being one of the main investigators). The vitiligo plays no role in any of this, they just happen to have it.

Yeah that's fine :)!

The issue isnt non-human transformation, its utilizing vitiligo as a means of conveying non-human markings, like tiger stripes.

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Some more examples!

hey! apologies if this has been asked already or if it's a question you're not well equipped to answer, but do you have any advice on how to depict vitiligo in art (< not regarding patterns, but how to stylize the pale spots themselves? if that makes sense at all). thank you and have a great day/night :]

It’ll depend on your art style so here’s a very simple “cheat sheet” that should hopefully help regardless! I’ll also be reblogging this post with examples of my own art!

Text in image under cut:

Hair doesn’t always lose pigmentation!

Color reflects undertone of skin

can vary in lightness

blood pooling can make it more sat[urated] or look darker

edges of patch are crisp/solid &/OR dappled.

edges can bleed into dapple

does NOT blur!

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

hey! apologies if this has been asked already or if it's a question you're not well equipped to answer, but do you have any advice on how to depict vitiligo in art (< not regarding patterns, but how to stylize the pale spots themselves? if that makes sense at all). thank you and have a great day/night :]

It’ll depend on your art style so here’s a very simple “cheat sheet” that should hopefully help regardless! I’ll also be reblogging this post with examples of my own art!

Text in image under cut:

Hair doesn’t always lose pigmentation!

Color reflects undertone of skin

can vary in lightness

blood pooling can make it more sat[urated] or look darker

edges of patch are crisp/solid &/OR dappled.

edges can bleed into dapple

does NOT blur!

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Hihi! I know enough to not do the whole "vitiligo from magic" thing but in my world I do want there to be some sort of physical indicator on somebody's skin of them being a magic user. I had a few things in mind with it being like... very distinct markings/patterns so they would be very much not natural seeming (Like straight edges, symmetrical patterns, etc.) as I know vitiligo is NOT that but I just wanted to get some input/advice on how to put enough distance between it that it's not being equated/associated with vitiligo. I also had another question about a specific character Mara. She's a magic user and would have these markings but she also has vitiligo (Among other things). I was kind of wondering about having the two different types of markings intersect. Is there anything I should avoid with this? (Or should the character be changed to NOT be a magic user/have the markings in general?) I had a few thoughts cross my mind about having the markings appear *over* her vitiligo patches... kind of like overlaying? But not sure if that's okay.

Absolutely no pressure to answer this if this isn't something you do but I appreciate the blog nonetheless!!

Apologies if this doesn't make sense. I just got top surgery a few hours ago (!!!) and am still a bit... *off* from the anesthesia 😅

CONGRATS ON THE TOP SURGERY!!!!! Hope you have a swift and kind recovery!

I think as long as it's obvious that the markings are different from vitiligo it should be fine. Like maybe have the markings reflect the element(or specialization?) so a fire magic user might have flames or embers that could even glow or flicker!

Having the markings go over the vitiligo would also be a good idea as it still treats the vitiligo like its "normal" skin, and helps differentiate the markings from the vitiligo!

As vocal as I am about vitiligo not being a magical side-effect I am a sucker for magic leaving physical impressions on the people that wield it LMAO

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

hi! im asking for a human design of a character (ralsei) from the game deltarune. i made it a while ago but recently ive been having second thoughts about him having vitiligo.

i want to give him vitiligo as a reference to how his fur color changes between chapters 1 and 2 in canon (where he is some sort of anthropomorphic goat) and it seemed like a good way to go about referencing it in his design in a world without magic but im concerned it would be inappropriate.

it wouldnt be at all a reference to the goat part of his original design shapewise or shaped in any unnatural way at all and it wouldnt be magical like his fur color change seems to be in canon (seems to be some kind of glamour?) but im worried it might be in poor taste still on account of it being linked to something that Was probably magic in canon + him originally being nonhuman.

i also made sure at the time i put the design together that i knew what type he had so its not just randomly placed. im not completely sure because its been a while but i believe its generalized/nonsegmental.

do you think i should go a different way with this / not give him vitiligo? or would this be alright?

thank you for your time either way! i think your blog is really lovely.

Imma be so real I don't really know anything about Deltarune or the Undertale series so idk how much of an informed opinion I can give </3

As for different ways to still give a nod to the in-game changes, you could try hair dye maybe?

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Hello! This might be a silly question but for the type of vitiligo that keeps spreading, does it ever slow down/stop?

I'm writing a fantasy story and there are a lot of fantasy species, and some of them live for a very long time. It made me wonder if like, an elf or immortal person would eventually end up with vitiligo covering their entire body.

This is another one of those "depends on the person" type of deals, universal vitiligo seems to cover at most ~99% of the body (not including hair as it's not a guarantee to effect it)

As for the other vitiligo types, there does seem to be "boarders" of sorts so if an immortal were to develop vitiligo its not necessarily true that they would end up being fully covered by it!

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Hi! I recently found your blog and and find it super useful! I'm currently writing a story where people have these powers that when in use incase their hands in a colored glow and one of the main characters has vitiligo. I was wondering if I should avoid having any vitiligo on his hands to avoid the vitiligo being seen as magical in any way? Or would it be okay since it wouldn't just be on his hands and everyone's hands glow when they use powers? Also most of the main cast has powers so he wouldn't be the only one with glowing hands. Just want to make sure I'm not being disrespectful to people with vitiligo.

I think that's fine! If you're really worried about it you can always have the vitiligo not effect the hands or even arms!

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

I'm not sure how to phrase this, but how "deep" do areas of depigmentation go? I'm guessing as deep as the skin itself goes, but I (don't have vitiligo) had an injury where almost all of my skin was gone from the wound, and the skin that was left was still skin but was a strikingly different color, and it got me thinking how that interacts with vitiligo.

(also I really appreciate the work you're doing with this blog.)

I think this is one of those things that may vary from person to person or even patch to patch. Physical trauma does tend to trigger vitiligo spots so it's possible that the majority if not all of the new(?) skin has vitiligo. Basically, if it has Melanocytes it has a chance to be effected.

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Ask box is empty and open if yall got questions:D!

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Hello! I have a character with generalized vitillgo who wears a mask, which hides the vitilligo on his face and his eye effected by uveitis.

This isn't beacuse he's insecure. He just thinks masks are cool, and it shades his face and eyes from the sun. (He usually ends up wiping the suncreen off when he sweats.) But the main reason he wears it is because he's really into collecting magic masks, and this one in particular makes him move faster. Masks in general are pretty important to his character.

He takes off the mask at night and sometimes while indoors, so people still see him without it. But when he's outside (which is most of the time), it's mask time.

The vitiligo on his hands and elbows is visible, so I don't think it falls into the 'hiding my disability because I'm ashamed/dramatic facial difference reveal' trope, but I'd like to check if there's something I should change! Or if you have any suggestions. I want to do this right 😅 Thank you for your time!

Sounds okay to me :D!

Love a guy with a silly little fashion gimmick <3

If you really want to make it clear that its more of an aesthetic/fashion appeal or something you can always have a character ask him about if it's for the vitiligo and have him say it isn't :}

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

hi! i've heard tons of conflicting information, so i thought maybe your blog would be a good place to hear experiences from people who actually have vitiligo.

can vitiligo affect eye color? i've seen some places that say yes, but the majority seem to say no.

do the edges of patches "soften" over time? if so, does this always happen or is it variable?

thank you so much for this blog. it's very educational and i love seeing understanding of disabilities being spread!

Vitiligo does not affect eye color; eye's technically have their own immune system so it wouldn't be effected by the rest of the bodies autoimmune responses (typically).

It depends on the patch itself, typically it "softens" through more of a dappled effect rather than say a blurred one.

Youre welcome, I'm happy to help!

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Hi I was wondering if in the scenario someone makes a character with vitiligo and makes them a furry or animal form and then gives that version similar markings would that be okay? I haven't made one myself but I was just thinking that would be different since it's giving an animal features a human has rather than a human animal features

Yup! I've talked about it in a couple of posts before but when characters, like say a werewolf has vitiligo, I find it better to include the vitiligo both in the human and animal form

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

maybe this is a silly question but how does vitiligo interact with scarring? specifically scars from after the areas already gone partially pale :0 my character has one that spans across a pale patch.

It does! Vitiligo in certain areas can be triggered by external and internal stresses, including physical trauma that can lead to scarring. If a scar is on an un-affected patch of skin, it can cause the area around it (including the scar itself) to develop vitiligo.

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

is it possible for there to be freckles on areas with vitiligo or no? or for vitiligo to even be just the absence of freckles in some areas? I know that vitiligo can affect anyone of any race/skin color it just isn't as visible on those who are lighter, so I was wondering if someone has freckles, could vitiligo just be a notable absence of freckles in some area(s)? mostly just how would vitiligo interact with freckles?

Nope! Freckles are basically small patches of skin with hyper-pigmientation, so in an area of hypo-pigemntation like vitiligo it wouldnt be able to exist!

That's not to say you can't have both freckles and vitiligo, you just cant have them existing in the same spot.

I used to have a freckle at the base of my ring finger but as my vitiligo spread it slowly disappeared lol

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

What’s your opinion on characters with two toned skin? More specifically the type of design where the character has two skin tones split down the middle? I thought it was cool but also wanted to check if it fell into the whole ‘unrealistic vitiligo patterns’ trope since I’m a little uneducated on stereotypes. Really cool blog btw:3

Thank you!

It really depends on a few specific things, all of which would probably warrant their own research. Examples like mosacism and chimerism are the first ones to come to mind.

No matter what there's a good chance that it might fall into some form or fashion of trope regarding pigmitation disabilities.