Don't leave sperm-looking marks on my future stepdaughter, world1

May 27, 2012 4:55 PM

My girlfriend's daughter woke up with a strange mark or bug bite of some type on her arm....

...can anyone take a look and surmise what it might be? Photo is here

My gf reports that it's a bit raised, but it doesn't hurt or itch, so she's puzzled and a bit concerned. She's at a big family gathering this week, and none of her fam "can figure out what it is." I *think* the mystery means we can possibly rule out that she just slept weird against some toy or the like shaped like a sperm.

posted by mreleganza to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

The shape isn't distinctive for ringworm or a bite. It looks like hives or a poison ivy/oak/sumac thing. Sometimes they don't itch at all, just irritate the skin enough to raise bumps like that. Hives look a bit like that sometimes, too.
posted by xingcat at 5:22 PM on May 27, 2012

It doesn't look like a bit to me. It looks more like a contact rash, as though she dragged her arm across poison ivy or poison oak or something like that.
posted by COD at 5:37 PM on May 27, 2012

Looks like a reaction to something like a millipede, just cause of the shape. If the redness isn't spreading up or down, but is static and horizontal, its probably an allergic reaction to something that got on her skin. (I am not a doctor.)
posted by dejah420 at 5:38 PM on May 27, 2012

I occasionally get raised markings with trails like that from spider bites. (Example found online. Warning: kinda gross.) A little cursory googling reveals that it's called superficial lymphangetic streaking.
posted by painquale at 6:05 PM on May 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

Sorry, that's "lymphangitic streaking" with an I, not an E.
posted by painquale at 6:09 PM on May 27, 2012

Last fall I had a freaky mosquito bite that grew a long red arm, kind of like that. I went to the doctor, who said it was either an infection or an allergic reaction. I took antibiotics and it went away, though I can't say whether it was due to the antibiotics or because the reaction had just run its course.

If you're pretty sure the mark is a bite, see a doctor to be on the safe side. Red lines leading away from a bite are often a sign of infection.
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:03 PM on May 27, 2012

This does not look like a bug bite to me. I personally think it is a reaction to poison ivy or poison oak.
posted by SkylitDrawl at 11:37 AM on May 28, 2012

That looks like a bug bite I got in Peru on a trip a few years ago.
posted by Tooty McTootsalot at 6:41 AM on June 4, 2012