An Easy Way to Find Out if You Have Scabies

We saw in the latest Slow Mo Guys video how tattoo guns do not inject ink, but rather create holes in the skin that the ink automatically fills by capillary action. That same technique is a way to diagnose scabies. Scabies is a skin parasite that burrows under the top layer of skin and causes severe itching and overall misery.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a case study in which a man who had been itching for months was diagnosed by putting a "purple skin marker" (which sounds like something that we would call a Sharpie) on an itchy patch and then wiping the ink off with alcohol. The ink remained in a burrow under the skin, indicating that scabies had tunneled through. It's not the most pleasant way to get a tattoo, but the man was diagnosed and was able to get proper treatment for the skin mite. -via TYWKIWDBI

When my husband and I moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana for work and the company put us up in a long term apartment rental until we purchased a house. It had everything including a fully furnished place with all the amenities. It was also filled with scabies! I had such an allergic reaction that I had clusters of blisters the size of quarters on my arms. I went to an urgent care facility and the doctor misdiagnosed my condition claiming I had herpes and gave me medication that did nothing to fix my problem. By then we had bought our house and I found a primary doctor that knew it was scabies bites since he, too, had been a victim of those bugs. Took nearly a year to rid ourselves and our home of these bugs. I did report the apartment for harboring those bugs. You have every right to be wary of staying in hotels and apartment rentals.