Dermatographism in popular culture.

Dermatographism was first described by William Heberden (1710-1801) more than 250 years ago as a type of urticaria brought on by rubbing or scratching the skin. In 1859, William Gull (1816-1890) gave it the name factitious urticaria, distinguishing dermatographism from chronic urticaria, in which the skin lesions appear spontaneously. During the 1870s French physicians at the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris became impressed by their ability to write words on the bodies of patients admitted with hysteria and other psychiatric disorders, who also exhibited dermatographism.