A woman has proudly showcased her enormous black birthmark that stretches across her neck and torso in a bid to raise awareness.
Gloria Aste, from Loveland, Colorado, has a rare skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN) – which people often confuse for a blackout tattoo.
The 20-year-old regularly receives hateful comments but continues to flaunt her unique feature online.
She told People: ‘My goal with social media is to just make differences more mainstream because they can be beautiful.’
Gloria Aste, from Loveland, Colorado, has a rare skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN) – which people often confuse for a blackout tattoo
She told People: ‘My goal with social media is to just make differences more mainstream because they can be beautiful’
Gloria was born with the rare condition that occurs once in only 50,000 births, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD).
Giant CMNs are described as ‘benign, tumor-like malformations resulting from faulty development of pigment cell precursors in the embryo.’
The social media star explained they ‘aren’t on your skin, but are your skin.’
She candidly told the publication: ‘I grew up with people constantly asking me questions about my skin. The questions used to be more like “did you color on yourself?”
‘However, as I have gotten older, most people assume that it’s a blackout tattoo, which actually happens pretty often.’
She continued: ‘I wanted to be open about my birthmark on social media because what I have is pretty rare and I grew up without seeing anyone that looked like me on anything.
‘I want to make people aware of it and I’d love to see more people who have it embrace it.’
Gloria confessed that there are downsides of being so candid online as she revealed she often receives hateful and inappropriate comments.
The 20-year-old regularly receives hateful comments but continues to flaunt her unique feature online
Gloria recently took to TikTok, where she has more than 65,200 followers, to respond to one such comment that read: ‘Nice blackout tattoo’
But she concluded: ‘I think that there’s just a lot of ignorance and lack of education that push people to say these things to me.
‘I honestly don’t get bothered much by the meaner comments because I think it’s easy to hide behind a screen and say whatever you want with no consequences.’
Gloria recently took to TikTok, where she has more than 65,200 followers, to respond to one such comment that read: ‘Nice blackout tattoo.’
She flaunted her feature in a cropped crochet knit top and jeans as she posed playfully for the camera.
The content creator added a sarcastic voiceover in the clip from the movie Precious which stated: ‘Since you got your degree and you know every f**king thing.’
Gloria captioned the clip: ‘Just an educational opportunity for people.’
And she was quickly flooded with supportive comments.
One person related to her content and wrote: ‘Girl, I’m baffled every time someone asks me if mine is a blackout tattoo.’
Another person wrote: ‘So hot,’ while another follower added: ‘You are beautiful.’
A fourth commenter added: ‘I know they aren’t the same things, but I have to say, you’ve made me feel more confident with my skin graft.
‘I got to help heal a quarter of my body after a burn accident… scars and all. Thank you.’
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