So.. i have a birthmark (it looks kinda like Nevada/ Bosnia 🤷♂️, btw) and I’m just curious about a few things:
First, at what stage of development do birthmarks appear?
Second, why do birthmarks appear in the first place?
And third, do birthmarks serve any purpose other than possibly being a conversation starter?
UPDATE: Thank you all for the upvotes, awards and comments… for those of you that asked, here’s a picture lol (sorry if it doesn’t look EXACTLY like Nevada/ Bosnia that’s just the best way I could describe it.)
^you ^dont ^have ^to ^be ^so ^mean ^🥺
http://imgur.com/a/OYVBB20
In: Biology
Edit1: added some for information I was trying to tell in the comments, but this got way out of hand in terms of volume for me haha
Edit2: semantics about the term birthmark at the end
1st part is simple, they start to show up at birth (can’t tell you when in the development of the embryo they show up). They grow in later stages too, early childhood birthmarks and late adulthood birthmarks are common.
2nd part not so much since there are many types. We classify them in to 2 types: vascular and pigmentational. Vascular birthmarks occur if blood vessels in a particular area of your skin don’t form the way they should. For example, there may be too many blood vessels clustered in one area or the blood vessels may be wider than they should be. Pigmented birthmarks occur when there’s an overabundance of pigment cells in one area. Pigment cells are what give your skin its natural color.
Edit1: So a lot of people asked about inverse or white birthmarks. As far as I know that is called depigmentation or in extreme cases vitiligo. It is mostly the same cause as the normal birthmark and quite common.
Edit1: In my first comment I didn’t know what causes birthmarks. Since then I’ve been enlightened. It is caused by a hereditary type of mutation that is actually a BENIGN skin tumor in the making.
Edit1: Birthmarks are hereditary, just like everything else. You give or receive half of your genome, therefore what your parents have you and your children are more likely to have the same. This goes for birthmarks, breast cancer, arthritis and even stuff like alcoholism.
Edit2: Birthmark is an improper term. We use nevus in medicine. The popular term suggests that it is in fact formed at birth and nothing else. That is factually untrue. They form arround birth most of the time, but many form in later stages of life too. The example of improper terminology I’ve been using in the comments is this: pineapple has nothing to do with pines and a bit with apples, jusy like birthmark has nothing to do with the actual procces of giving birth but a bit with when the mark usually forms.
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