Photos of Michael Jackson Show Signs of Vitiligo and Needle Punctures

[Roon]

Exclusive photos of Michael Jackson obtained by ABC News show a serious wound on the pop star's right leg, which a medical expert said appears to be surrounded by unusual needle punctures.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MichaelJackson/Story?id=8083809&page=1

[xultar]

1. There were also reports of skin cancer.

[Roon]

2. I didn't hear about that

thanks for the heads up!

[beachmom]

3. My God, he told the truth about the Vitiligo.

And nobody believed him. Why he looked "bleached" is explained below (and I have read other articles that have said the same thing):

Jackson's Ailment: Expert Says Photos Show Vitiligo

Jaliman said the photos show a loss of pigmentation consistent with vitiligo, a chronic disorder that causes depigmentation in patches of skin.

"From looking at the photographs, it looks like Michael Jackson does have vitiligo," Jaliman said, pointing to the uneven discoloration of his skin.

...

"When people have vitiligo and they have such uneven discoloration, oftentimes they take a dipigmenting agent, which is a cream, and you can actually destroy the very dark color cells that you have and then you make your skin very, very white," Jaliman said.

"If you look at his hands, they are totally depigmented. And in vitiligo, you would never see that. So I would start to think that he might have used a depigmenting agent," she said.

[undeterred]

I always believed him.

Why would he make something like that up?

[BuelahWitch]

85. So did I

I guess some people just wanted to believe he "wanted to be white" and bleached his skin for the hell of it. :eyes:

[Maru Kitteh]

65. I've seen vitiligo in my own family so I never doubted it, but I thought he probably bleached the

rest of his skin to even it out. I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing. I can't say that at all.

[PassingTimeHere]

93. I always believed he had vitiligo. I just don't understand all the surgeries

[Connie_Corleone]

4. Proof of Vitiligo.

Maybe those people who kept saying MJ was trying to become white can shut up now.

[Raschel]

9. I always believed he had vitiligo. (of course everyone will say that now, I suppose)

Unlike some crybabies, Jackson never tried to counter the ridicule he endured from the public, talk show hosts, and media about his "wanting to be White", which says something about his strength of character.

Hope all of the bigots are happy

[Catherine Vincent]

12. Once it came out that he had vitiligo, I believed it.

I have seen African Americans with that disease and if it were me, I would definitely try anything to cover it up. Because the patches make you look like you are disfigured.

[RobinA]

43. Never Doubted It For a Minute

I've seen a two AAs with vitiligo (that I could tell) and it looks quite bad. I can certainly understand why ANYBODY would want to hide it, particularly someone who makes money from his looks. It never made a bit of sense to me that he wanted to bleach himself because he hated being black.

[devilgrrl]

26. Other that the obvious plastic surgery - I don't believe a thing that anyone has told me about him

Sure, he was an "odd ball" but IMHO - very little else.

I don't think he was a pedophile. I think he definitely had that skin condition.

And there you have it. The only freaks in the Michael Jackson saga were the people he was surrounded by... and then there's the media.

[CatWoman]

53. and

the nattering nabobs of negativism on DU.

[devilgrrl]

64. No doubt!

:puke:

[CatWoman]

17. check this out

http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2009/07/auto-immune-diseases-and-michael.html

and

http://floacist.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/vitiligo-photos-michael-jackson/

[msanthrope]

19. No proof of vitiligo---

Sorry, but a skin doctor looking at picture can't diagnose that. She's not his doctor, and she hasn't seen the body, nor the autopsy report.

It's looks consistent with IV drug use, too....their skin gets mottled, too.

Remember Dr. Frist?

[CatWoman]

32. why don't you try looking at the links above

Dr. Welby?

[msanthrope]

40. I looked at them--the dr in question looked at pictures

from 2002.

That's a Dr. Frist diagnosis.

[Maru Kitteh]

66. Waddaya call this? BTW, the mottled skin of a white guy like Frist is NOT the same thing, At all.

[CatWoman]

73. goes to show he didn't bother to look at the links

[Maru Kitteh]

80. But he's not a doctor but he just knows it's "mottled skin" from drug use

which is the dumbest thing anyone with even common knowledge of skin conditions could come up with after viewing the pictures.

Besides, the premise that photographs are not sufficient to observe and make speculation about disease is just DAFFY. What the hell do people think physicians and nurses learn from? Do they think they trot in a person with leprosy to show us what leprosy looks like? How about cutaneous anthrax? Google that one for a real horror story.

[LisaL]

59. Vitligo isn't going to explain why he changed his facial features.

[Catherine Vincent]

61. We will never know why he changed his facial features.

But since his face would be white as a sheet, he probably thought his African American features would stand out more. Maybe he didn't want to look like an Albino. :shrug:

[p4poetic]

90. well

"Vitligo isn't going to explain why he changed his facial features."

I don't understand that proposition. He got plastic surgery on his nose before he was diagnosed vitiligo/discoid lupus. His first nose job was in fact in the late 70s after breaking his nose on stage (it was probably the Triumph tour, but I'm not sure). Besides, his sister Janet has similarly reshaped her nose (albeit not as much, I don't think their father made fun of any of his children's noses as much as he did Michael's).

[LisaL]

98. Janet didn't " similarly reshape her nose."

I don't think there was much of a nose left after all the things MJ did to his.
Janet's nose looks similar to what she started off with as a child.

[peekaloo]

5. I saw part of that interview with the male parental unit last night.

x(

That ex-assistant or whomever said he had got up to go the bathroom, forgetting there was an IV in his leg, and it ripped out of his skin. (showed the pic)

Just my impression but the father came across like a snake.

[rainbow4321]

83. Which leads to the question

WTF did they start an IV in his LEG??????? And who started it? What was wrong with the veins in his arms at the time? At the time the explanation given was "it's a wound from a spider bite".
I've seen IV's get pulled out by patients moving around too quickly. I've never seen a wound like that afterwards.

[On the Road]

6. This Would Explain a Lot

"Everybody tryin' to make a big thing out of it ... They say -- 'He try to paint his self white.' That's not true. Michael got vitiligo," Joe Jackson said. "We saw it comin' on him and -- at -- early age. You know, just a little spot. My aunt had the same thing. It's no cure for that ... He did not try to paint himself white."

But Jaliman said that from the photos, it appears that Jackson used a depigmentating agent on certain parts of his body to even out his skin tone.

"When people have vitiligo and they have such uneven discoloration, oftentimes they take a dipigmenting agent, which is a cream, and you can actually destroy the very dark color cells that you have and then you make your skin very, very white," Jaliman said.

"If you look at his hands, they are totally depigmented. And in vitiligo, you would never see that. So I would start to think that he might have used a depigmenting agent," she said.

Thanks for the link.

[xultar]

7. He was just trying to get his skin to match. Can you imagine the pain of his open sore?

:cry:

[Hansel]

67. His dermatologist was saying as much on Larrry King Live.

He said MJ was very spotted and that he prescribed him with a depigmentation cream to even the skin pigment out.

[dipsydoodle]

8. What a horrible sight.

Mottled legs.

[kjackson227]

14. Mottled, and very, very thin. So sad :(

[dipsydoodle]

35. I also meant to say how sad.

:(

[imdjh]

10. I saw a guy with vitiligo the other night in the grocery store.

I've seen people with it all my life. I recall as a child, that some folks believed that black people were soaking in bleach. But I haven't seen it too often lately. Then I saw a guy the other night, who had the most whited area I have ever seen. The remaining brown skin was more like a birth mark on his face than a remnant of his former complexion.

I tried to observe without getting caught staring. Something I noticed was that his hair was also straight and fine and didn't appear to have been chemically processed, it wasn't stiff like straightened hair, it was actually caucasian looking despite his pronounced facial features.

[RobinA]

44. "Uneven Pigmentation"

is putting in mildly with African-American people and vitiligo. I remeber that nonsense about soaking in bleach from when I was a kid. I didn't believe it then anymore than I do today. I may be white already, but touching bleach never whitened my sick a bit, or I would have used it on my freckles starting in about 4th grade.

[imdjh]

45. I just remember it through a child's eyes.

I only remember it on women, because the only skin I would see on black men was face and hands. I remember seeing black women with what looked like horribly irritated patches or burns on their legs so the bleaching thing made sense to me. Naturally, I was forbidden to mess with bleach (and had no desire to) but I did try to bleach my hair once at about age 9. I put peroxide on my hair and sat in the sun. SInce I didn't wash the peroxide off my hands, little dots of peeling skin formed, and I thought I had leprosy. I was terrified of leprosy as a child.

[Maru Kitteh]

68. Hispanics and "white" people get it too. My FIL had naturally straight hair and vitiligo.

[Catherine Vincent]

11. What happened to privacy?

[msanthrope]

21. Ah, the irony....defending MJ apparently requires his autopsy photos. n/t

[csziggy]

28. Those pictures of his legs were from 2002 - maybe from the court case.

As mentioned in the article.

[msanthrope]

39. Well, that makes it okay, right?

I mean, personal medico-legal pictures submitted as part of a court case aren't private, right?

They should be gawked at and we should use them to make diagnoses from, right?

Look, I don't doubt the man did exactly what he was accused of--but I am disgusted beyond belief that this was used to diagnose a disease, or, in fact, were released.

MJ had a right to privacy about these pictures--beyond the fact-finders in his case, and the appropriate court personnel, who needed to see these?

[csziggy]

46. My response to you was to simply correct your impression that they were autopsy photos.

If they were part of the court case records it makes them public. I agree that the use of the pictures is reprehensible and teh 'experts' making diagnoses from them are full of bull.

[msanthrope]

47. I appreciate your reply. However, just because they are part

of a court case does not mean they are 'public'. (See, torture photos.)

Again, I want to thank you for your reply. Although I think Jackson did what he was accused of, I think it sick to publish photos of his body.

[Maru Kitteh]

69. Not autopsy, not legal photos either. Look for yourself.

Well?????

[Myrina]

13. Call me a tinfoiler but how do we know that's MJ?

:shrug: If the pics only show from the knees down ... or did I miss something? :shrug:

[Raine]

51. On the ABC TV special

they showed Michael sitting there, in this article they only show the legs ... it's MJ.

edit:typo

[Myrina]

96. Yeah, I caught that later in the evening -- thanks for the clarification!

:hi:

[Maru Kitteh]

71. see for yourself

[mnhtnbb]

15. I have vitiligo. Started as very small spots when I was a kid.

Then when I was about 35 it started on the tips of my fingers and has progressed on my hands so that all my fingers are now white. I have other larger spots on my legs and arms which are covered most of the time by clothing. I stay out of the sun as much as possible because when I tan my normal skin color
darkens and causes more contrast with the skin that's lost pigmentation.

A year or so ago it started on my face--which I was dreading. I now use sunscreen whenever I go out, wear
a hat and if I do get some sun, I use concealer to blend the spots with the rest of my face. So far, it's not too bad on my face.

It can be very disfiguring. As long as I stay out of the sun and don't tan, it's not that noticeable.
During the winter, it's much less noticeable on my hands--to the point that when I walk or go outside I often don't bother to put on sunscreen.

I'm Caucasian so the contrast on me is a lot less than on people who have normally darker skin tones.

[DevonRex]

27. My niece has it. She uses something that brings pigment from surrounding

skin to the areas where there isn't any pigment. I don't know how long that works. I guess once it gets really bad there isn't much surrounding pigmented skin to use.

[mnhtnbb]

30. I haven't seen a dermatologist about it for some time. My hands

and spots on legs/arms don't bother me, but I'm not happy it's started on my face.

[DevonRex]

31. Yeah. That's where hers started. You might ask about that cream

next time you go to the doctor. I'll try to find out the name of it in the meantime. :hug:

[Hansel]

70. I have it too, but just got it in the past several years.

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism several years ago so I'm assuming this is the cause. It is thanks to all of the discussion about MJ that I finally figured out what was going on. My entire throat, part of the top of one foot and part of my hand no longer tan.

I'm paper white anyway so it is not very noticeable unless I spend a lot of time in the sun. Luckily we have the option to avoid tanning. I can't imagine what it must be like to deal with for someone who is black.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. My grandfather had vitiligo

and since he was white, I guess, decided not to mask it. But his face looked very strange, especially in the summer, when the non-effected areas tanned. And in the winter, the places on his face looked dead.

[msanthrope]

18. Vitiligo? Or the mottled skin consistent with IV drug use?

Please--this dermatologist is diagnosing by picture....and did not say that it was positively vitiligo, merely, consistent with it.

Which should carry the same weight of Dr. Frist's diagnoses....

[Aramchek]

42. you've really got an axe to grind, don't you?

do a little googling and you will find dozens of photos clearly showing his Vitiligo throughout his life.
but something tells me that the facts have very little bearing on your decision making process.

[msanthrope]

48. Welcome to DU.

Outside of a doctor who treated Jackson, or an autopsy report by a doctor detailing his condition, I apply the Dr. Frist rules.

[Aramchek]

52. except to your own mottled skin/junkie pet theory

Dr. Frist would be proud.

[msanthrope]

56. I'm not a Dr. Nor have I slept at a Holiday Inn.

I get to speculate. Not diagnose.

[Maru Kitteh]

75. AWESOME RESPONSE! And welcome to DU!

That completely rawked.

:toast:
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
:yourock:
:fistbump:

[LanternWaste]

62. Does that apply to court cases too, or just medical cases...?

"I apply the Dr. Frist rules."

Does that apply to court cases and indictments too, or just medical cases...?

[Solomon]

91. Bam!!! You shot that dead!

LOL Thanks for doing that. I love it when asses get their asses handed to them.

[CatWoman]

76. why go to such extremes when all you need to rely on are your eyes?

that's such a fucked up, illogical excuse not to face the truth and reality.

[Hansel]

74. His doctor was on Larry King Live the other night and

said that yes, in fact, he had vitiligo and described the condition of his legs exactly as they appear in the picture. He said he prescribed a cream to even out the color.

I'm not really sure why this is so hard to believe. I have vitiligo and several other posters have discussed that they have the same condition. It's not like it's extremely rare. MJ had Lupus, which is an autoimmune disorder (his doctor also said this). Vitiligo is very common with people who have such disorders.

Occam Razor.

[rainbow4321]

81. Apparently he had two choices...darken the lighter spots or lighten the rest of his skin

Darkening the light spots would require heavy makeup all the time and there was a chance that the darkened spots would not all be the same shade when they were darkened. Plus I believe they said that eventually there would be too many spots to try and darken and cosmetically it would have been a nightmare.
So it was "easier" to just lighten his entire skin.

[Lex]

20. jesus, that's a terrible wound

if that's MJ or someone else, that wound is scary as hell

[msanthrope]

22. IV drug use can make that kind of wound....looks like it's a junkie's

abscess.

[msanthrope]

23. Is this from the autopsy report? Or from someone who just

looked at some of the pictures?

[beachmom]

24. Agreed, we should wait for definitive proof. But given that without any proof at all,

people said MJ "wanted to be white", I see no problem taking a look and speculating.

In a larger sense, though, it probably is best to get something REAL instead of the constant flimsy barage of "news" about the deceased singer.

[msanthrope]

25. Especially from ABC news, IMHO--you can't diagnose someone

from their autopsy photos...

[Maru Kitteh]

103. Except the fact that you are wrong as hell, and they're no autopsy photos.

[IcyPeas]

29. These pix are from 2002 - it says it twice in the article!!

... not autopsy photos!!

[msanthrope]

41. You are right--but they are still pictures. And I ask you

should ANY doctor diagnose from pictures?

Who released these pictures?

[Maru Kitteh]

104. For the love of Dog, just admit you were wrong - and the short answer is yes and look it up yourself

[butterfly77]

49. Michael had a spider bite at that time ...

I remember it being reported in the news. The media is letting every money grubbing liar in the books come on these shows to tell their lies and a lot of this stuff is being contradicted and its none of their damned business they are some of the people who made his life so miserable at times.

[Deja Q]

33. Sad he had to die for people to figure some of these things out...

Pity people still believe he fondled and molested children. Especially when he comes across more sincere than 99% of politicians do when they are put in front of a camera to talk...

I should find the link when I went all-out defending the guy after he died...

[trumad]

34. Oh come on...

The dude admitted having boys sleep in his own bed with him..... Now I have no proof that he had sex with them--- but if you don't think that weird---then you're fucking weird.

[devilgrrl]

36. Oh that's weird all right - too bad he probably never laid a finger on them.

That would have been really weird.

:popcorn:

[trumad]

37. or a Glove

[devilgrrl]

38. or a glove! Say? Let's dig him up and kill him again!!!

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[Name removed]

94. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[devilgrrl]

99. You're entitled to believe that - I think it's horseshit and monetary settlements do not = guilt.

Have a nice day. :hi:

[butterfly77]

50. If the media tells a lie long enough ...

and over and over again they will ultimately catch some simple minded people in their snares,like you..

[devilgrrl]

57. Yes, the media keeps repeating that Michael Jackson abused children - I think they're lying!

:hi:

[Hansel]

79. Do you have the quote where he said he admitted he was in the bed with them

I can only remember him saying that they slept in the bed and he slept in a sleeping bag on the floor. I also remember that the child on the special who he was talking about was quite ill and that he was paying for all of his care. That he was giving him special attention because of his illness.

I don't recall him ever saying that he slept in his bed with him. He did say he shared his bed with he, clarifying that he let them sleep in his bed.

There was a reason that he was acquitted and it wasn't because he was a celebrity.

[LisaL]

100. MJ had said he slept in the bed with many children during the

Bashir interview.
‘‘I have slept in a bed with many children. I slept in a bed with all of them when (Home Alone child star) Macaulay Culkin was little. Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macaulay Culkin was on this side, his sisters in there. We all would just jam in the bed.’’
http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/17827/

[devilgrrl]

101. So that means they were all naked and he couldn't keep his hands off of them - right?

:popcorn:

[LisaL]

102. Poster asked for a quote and it was provided.

It's your prerogative as to how to interpret the quote.

[undeterred]

54. The video of MJ's burn incident while filming a Pepsi commercial

in 1984 is up now. Its really a serious burn- it seems to me like they downplayed it quite a bit.

http://www.usmagazine.com/news/video-michael-jacksons-tragic-commercial-accident-2009157

[Catherine Vincent]

55. I think so too.

Didn't realize it was that bad.

[rainbow4321]

82. I can't believe his whole head/face/clothes didn't catch on fire

2nd and ***3rd** degree burns he got from that. Very sad to hear the talking heads going thru the "what if" stuff. That moment on video is what set off his addiction to rx drugs. If only the pyro stuff had not gone off before he went down those steps....
Pepsi tried to shift the blame to him at the time, saying that the hair gel he used should not have been around the "flames" of the pyro part of the show. OK...well, HE didn't put his hair around flames, Pepsi's damn flames went off TOO SOON, before he could get down the steps.

[undeterred]

87. Many hair products make your hair more flammable.

I remember being told that in organic chemistry in college. They said do not use hairspray or gel the day of lab; keep your hair in a ponytail for safety.

Michael shouldn't be blamed for using hair gel. They totally fucked up and took too long to get the fire put out.

For that kind of injury he surely needed serious pain medication. He's not the first person who became addicted to it after undergoing a major trauma, that's for sure.

[devilgrrl]

84. I just watched that for the first time. WOW! Did they ever downplay that!

:wow:

[undeterred]

86. I can't believe they lit his head on fire

and he only got $1.5 million for it. A huge chunk of scalp burned right off his head- that must have been agonizingly painful. Not to mention that his hair probably never grew back. I just remember hearing there was an accident while shooting the commercial, but he was ok.

[girl gone mad]

89. No kidding.

Can you imagine that video and the true extent of his injuries being suppressed in this era? Even a mega corporation like Pepsi couldn't get away with it now.

[Holly_Hobby]

58. Lupus also causes these type of lesions

I know, my mother has it. She looks like a junkie too.

[htuttle]

60. It's not Lupus. It's never Lupus.

[upi402]

72. Ah walk it off!

What do you say about a pedophile who is adored by this moralistic, victorian nation...

meh

I never watched a minute of the hype. effemall

[Blasphemer]

77. LOL.... nt

[CatWoman]

78. well

what is it, then?

[PassingTimeHere]

95. It's definitely never lupus on the show "House"

:)

[Contrary1]

63. It looks just like a wound my mother had on her forearm...

compliments of a nurse who pulled a bandage off not so gently. A piece of flesh about 2x3 inches came off with it.

Took weeks to heal.

[live love laugh]

88. ABC "News" did more to destroy MJ than most with Bashir in tow...and now they continue

to feed off of him. That's why I avoid ABC for viewing. I lurch every time I see Bashir. The fact that he now hosts Nightline is a joke. I stopped watching the minute he took over.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

92. Yeah, because Bashir forced MJ to admit to sleeping with

children in his own bed...

MJ was a flawed human being - talented, but flawed. Certainly, he was flawed as a result of his upbringing and the sycophants around him who probably enabled his drug abuse. I doubt that the Pepsi commercial incident alone is what started the downward spiral. His life was over the day he was born to his abuser-father.

[Catherine Vincent]

97. They slept in his bed, he slept on the floor. nt