I'm back! IAMA girl with a rare condition that turns her sweat to the color of blood. Ask me anything!

Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses or 1 horse sized duck?

Horse sized duck. Wait, what kind of duck are we talking about? Wood Duck? Sure. Mallard? Maybe. American Wigeon? Forget about it.

Honestly, I think your condition is pretty neat.

Electric blue (as I noted in the description) might be kinda neat!

If the sweat and pigment is left to dry on your skin, what does it look like? Can you just brush it off, or do you have to wash it off?

It washes off pretty easily. And to see what it looks like (or something closer to what it looks like) when it dries, check the proof pic on my first AMA

I feel like this has got to come in handy around Halloween. Have you ever picked a costume that played off of your condition?

Last year was the first year that I ever did anything like this!

I wasn't anything in particular, but I dressed up in a tattered white dress, dyed my hair black (using temporary dye), and used white makeup to make my skin really pale. Add in the blood sweat and presto!: you have a scary, bloody, Grudge-girl.

That's awesome! Way to embrace it. Thanks for the response.

Thanks for the question! :P

Pictures?

they're in the description! :)

Of the Halloween costume? :)

Oh right right. I'll look! I just switched over a new laptop and am working without any of my old files right noww

Would you be interested in posting a video of you working out and watching the sweat form on your skin? I think this is fascinating and I'd be kind of amazed watching that.

Now that you mention it, I've done this - it was for a class last year. But honestly, it's not something I plan on doing for quite some time. It has nothing to do with my condition, I've just never liked to be filmed while I'm working out :/

Yours is an interesting condition, thank you for doing this AMA!

I understand that the pigmentation is not caused by blood; has the actual cause/source of the pigment been determined?

Thanks for your interest!

And, unfortunately, there's not a lot of literature out there about this condition, so the origin of the strange pigmentation is not entirely clear

What's your blood type?

O-neg :)

Have you found that as you've gotten older and people have gotten a little less retarded that you get more reactions about how it's kinda cool to sweat blood than reactions about how gross your condition is?

I'd personally love to fuck with people and would pretty much make it my calling to see how many people in a week would want to burn me at the stake. That or go to a Catholic Church in the middle of summer with a crown of thorns on or something.

My family is devoutly Catholic, so I've spent more than enough time in mass ;)

And as far as people go, the insults have shifted from being disgusting to being diseased. I've even had people who refuse to shake my hand because they're afraid that they'll catch something.

So I take it you have had creepy old people telling you they''ll pray for you?

You just described my daily routine :P

How long does it take the pigmentation to fade when it stains the paper towel? You could be like an artist's dream condition.

Good question! I really have absolutely no idea! I wish I had an answer for youu :/

If you leave a stained sheet out in the sun I imagine it would fade away after a few days, however you may have a super-lightfast pigment factory haha. Blood turns rust colored, most natural pigments don't last long but a span of 300 light hours is acceptable.

Right, but you have to remember that there isn't any blood in my sweat: it's just a pigment!

Have you ever done one of those super-popular Color Runs? I feel like that could be pretty awesome, actually.

I've done several Color Runs! :P

Have you ever confused your period with sweat between your legs (or vice versa)? I hope that question doesn't seem too creepy. As a female, I can't help but think I would make that mistake a time or two.

This is a direct transplant from my first AMA:

Junior year of high school - a Tuesday (don't ask me why I remember that). It was in the last few weeks before Summer break and the temperature was what you'd expect from south-eastern Texas at the time. I got dressed and walked out of the door to go to school. What I had totally ignored while choosing my outfit was that I had unwittingly and stupidly put on a tight-fitting pair of white shorts. Normally, one of my three older brothers (two were still in high school at the time) stops me if he sees that I'm wearing white and makes sure that I really wanna go through with that. But I guess they missed it that day. I don't need to tell you what a BAD combination WHITE SHORTS and SWEAT THAT LOOKS LIKE BLOOD is...

It's happened haha. But better safe than sorry, I suppose!

I KNEW X-MEN WERE REAL!

I KNEW WHITE LAMAS WERE REAL!

Hello Satan's daughter!^{I am sorry for that..} My question is were you ever bullied because of your sweat? Also I think its pretty cool that you can sweat blood. :P

I was! It was a BIG problem in middle school (elementary school was pretty bad, too). I mentioned it somewhere else on this thread, but it got so bad that I tried to kill myself in seventh grade.

That must have been horrible growing up. Also would you say that your condition has influenced your education and what career you want? Sorry for asking all these questions.

Oh shush, no need to apologize! I'm here to answer YOUR questions!

And no, not really. Harvard was almost a "joke", I sent in my application pretty late just to kinda "wing-it". I was originally going to attend Texas A&M (I'm a Texas girl through and through).

I am studying to be sorta like a hematologist and you can guess my reaction when I saw this IAMA. Also fellow Texan here!

Howdy! And while you might get something out of my condition, there's never been any evidence that there's ACTUALLY blood in my sweat. A condition DOES exist where actual blood is excreted by the sweat and tear glands (haemolacria), but that condition is, arguably, even MORE rare than chromhidrosis.

Hey Satan's Daughter! What was your reaction when you first found out your sweat is all bloody looking and sticky. ^{^(no offence)}

Hey asshat! :P

I don't really remember, tbh. It's been a condition that I've had since childhood (and possibly since birth), so there wasn't really a day where I woke up and said: "Oh goodness! Look at my sweat!"