These pictures and the evidence for Michael’s vitiligo have been around since the 1980s and yet I know that I’ve never seen them published in any mainstream articles regarding his illness. When discussing his vitiligo they’ll post a picture of him in maybe 1980 and then one from 1991 onwards to show the dramatic change as though he woke up one morning without any pigment. They also never show any photos of him with the splotches of colour he had left and try to make it seem as though he was now a universal “white” colour when in fact he wasn’t. In the 2005 court case even the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, wrongly stated that he believed Michael was one universal white colour.
Michael also suffered from another autoimmune disease, discoid lupus. When someone has one autoimmune disease their chances of suffering from another increase. His lupus was skin specific (with some lung and joint paint) and also had a big impact on his overall appearance.
Coroner statement confirming the diagnosis:
Autopsy report highlights that even at his death his skin was not evenly pigmented:
“The decedent’s overall skin has patches of light and dark pigmented areas.
There is focal depigmentation of the skin, particularly over the anterior chest and abdomen, face and arms.”
They inspected his skin under a microscope and found a reduced amount of melanocytes (the cells responsible for skin pigment), which is consistent with vitiligo:
In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Chris Connelly, Joe Jackson said his son had vitiligo, and attributed Michael Jackson’s whitened skin to the condition.
“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… at [an] early age. You know, just a little spot. My aunt had the same thing.”
It looks as though the vitiligo started on Michael at the very tips of his fingers before it began to spread, just as it seems to have started with his son Prince.
The photo is from an article in “16″ magazine in 1972, when Michael was 13
More photos of Mike from around 12-15
Around 16 here
On the Triumph tour his stage make up runs and you can see the areas of depigmentation. He was already wearing a lot of make up to cover it. After the Oprah interview in 1993 a lot of people asked – why did Michael not just wear dark make up to cover up his vitiligo? He’d actually been wearing dark make up to cover his skin for years.
Michael Jackson’s single white glove was his trademark — an iconic image for a performer whose career constantly set, then redefined, pop culture trends but it also was an early effort to mask a skin condition that he would struggle with for the rest of his life, say some who were close to him.
Actress Cicely Tyson, a friend of Jackson’s, said the two shared a fashion designer in the 1980s.
“All of a sudden, he said, ‘I’m doing this glove for Michael,’ ” she said. “Michael was beginning to develop the vitiligo and it started on his hand.
“The glove was to cover the vitiligo; that’s how that glove came into being.”
The glove design and reason for it were not just hearsay for Tyson, she said.
“I was there when he was creating it,” she told CNN’s Don Lemon.
Taiwanese fan Mrs Ma on befriending Michael, confirms the white glove story:
Michael had confided to Mrs. Ma things like that his iconic sequined glove,was first used to hide his skin problem, vitiligo. It had first appeared on his hand, and the glove had surprisingly become his signature trademark.
Around 1984
The only editing on this photo was lightening the area where his hand had been in shade to show how uneven his skin was. In private Michael didn’t wear any make up.
Someone who visited Hayvenhurt in the mid 80s commented that his nose was darker than the rest of his face and they couldn’t understand why this was. You can also see the vitiligo over his ear.
Victory Tour, his hand
Victory Tour glove stained with the make up he used to cover it
Wearing light reflective make up which makes the areas of his face with less pigment stand out under a camera flash
Bad Tour from 1987-1989, his hands again
Two stills from a tour video, the first shows two large white patches on his arms and the second shows the white area below his wrist, link to the footage here
More from footage, like the spotting very visible on his hands here
Bad Tour without make up
And wearing full make up at an awards show and the video for Liberian Girl in 1989. You can see his skin here looks even and dark but in reality at the time it was not, most of the colour in his face had already gone.
The reason why he bandaged his hand, you can see discolouration around the edges
TWYMMF set picture
His hands
On the set of Black or White in 1991. In the deposition in front of the Grand Jury in 1994 his doctors stated that he had only begun using creams to even out his skin in 1990, but as you can see a year later and his skin was still uneven
Close up of his hands
They Don’t Care About Us in 1996, over his arms and chest.
The side of his face and his neck
All over his arms:
And then recently photos from around 2007, his wrists
When he had the spider bite in 2002 he had photos taken as evidence and they also revealed how blotchy the skin on his legs were
There are pictures from these time periods where his skin looks even but keep in mind that he wore a lot of make up when he was in public, that one of the traits of vitiligo is spots shrinking and changing shape and position (this can be seen on the markings on his wrists), and that in the 80s he had also tried to gain his pigment back, something that many people aren’t aware about.
This was his make up case backstage of Victory tour in 1984
The makeup that you can see in his kit is called Dermablend. This is a high-pigment makeup created to cover burns, scars and skin discolorations. Many people with vitiligo use this product, it’s sort of a cover stick for the entire face. But because it makes the entire surface of your skin one color, you have to use a few shades to avoid looking mask-like and it is very difficult to achieve a natural look. You also have to provide color for everything else – lips, eye lashes, blush, eyeshadow.
Michael used more and more stylized makeup as a result – a luxury most people don’t have. Why pretend you are not wearing any when you can change your style to incorporate it? As his skin lightened more evenly, he used lighter and lighter shades of the product (which comes in tones for a variety of skin colors but can go to a very very fair as well) to match his current overall pigmentation. It’s an interesting side note than although it is an expensive makeup requiring multiple shades and its own unique setting powder, many cross-dressers and female impersonators use Dermablend to cover heavy beard shadow, heavy blocked-out eyebrows and other masculine traits not easy to cover with drug store pancake or liquid foundations.
Permanent cosmetic pioneer, Sandi Hammons, and her company, Premier Pigments, the manufacturer of the permanent makeup worn by the late Michael Jackson, are speaking out against widespread assertions that “Michael Jackson didn’t want to be black.”
Arlington, TX (PRWEB Reprinted) July 7, 2009 – Permanent cosmetic pioneer and celebrity permanent makeup artist, Sandi Hammons, and her company, Premier Pigments, the manufacturer of the permanent makeup worn by the late Michael Jackson, are speaking out against widespread assertions that “Michael Jackson didn’t want to be black.”
“That is so far from the truth,” says Hammons. “Anyone making those assertions obviously doesn’t understand the disease Michael suffered from or the treatment options available to him.”
“There are even some medical professionals who still consider the disease to be nothing more than a cosmetic nuisance,” said Hammons, “But the truth is, many people diagnosed with the disease suffer greatly. A deep sense of shame and hopelessness (including depression and suicidal thoughts) along with a preoccupation with appearance and available treatments are really not uncommon. Vitiligo is especially traumatic for darker skinned individuals, as the contrast between pigmented and depigmented skin can be quite drastic.”
Jackson was widely criticized for his use of bleaching medications and chemical peels. “What people don’t understand is that there are few, if any, treatments that are effective, especially for widespread cases like Michael’s.”
There are three common types of treatment for vitiligo: 1. Repigmentation as in the case of PUVA and UV lights (Typically ineffective on widespread cases) 2. Micropigmentation (i.e. cosmetic tattooing – recommended on small areas that accept cosmetic pigment) 3. Depigmentation, as in the case of using bleaching creams to remove smaller pigmented areas (typically recommended for widespread cases similar to Jackson’s).
Vitiligo affects 1% to 2% of the population. It is estimated that over 50 million people suffer from this little known and often misunderstood disease. The precise cause of the disease is complex and not fully understood. There is some evidence suggesting that it is caused by a combination of autoimmune, genetic and environmental factors. “Stress is definitely a contributing factor,” said Hammons. “Changing skin colors add even more stress, particularly if vitiligo develops on visible areas of the body, such as the face, hands, arms, feet, or on the genitals.”
In some cultures there is a stigma attached to having vitiligo. Those affected with the condition are sometimes thought to be evil or diseased and are sometimes shunned by others in the community. People with vitiligo may feel depressed because of this stigma or because their appearance has changed dramatically.
Hammons has great compassion for Jackson and his battle with the disease. “To deal with the psychological impact of this disease is significant; to deal with the very public and cruel opinions of others must have been overwhelming.”
“Trauma drives addiction,” adds Hammons. “In my opinion, those who judged him unknowingly contributed to his preoccupation with appearance, his eventual addiction to cosmetic surgery and prescription drugs, and ultimately his early death. We all need to have more compassion for those who suffer from this baffling and misunderstood disease.”
From the book, The White African American Body by Charles D. Martin:
“For more than 200 years natural philosophers, scientists and showmen have exhibited the bodies of African Americans with white or gradually whitening skin in taverns, dime museums, and circus sideshows. The term White Negro has served to describe individuals born with albinism as well as those who have vitiligo…”
Only just recently people with vitiligo were regarded as “freaks” and were even used in the circus as side show attractions. Perhaps it isn’t surprising then that Michael felt such kinship with the life of Joseph Merrick.
They were called “white negros,” “zebra people,” “leopard people,” “piebalds.”
They also reveal the genetic component of the disease, as many of them seem to have other family members who also suffered from the disease. I’ve been told by a geneticist that early onset of the disease increases the likelihood of it being genetic, which seems consistent with Michael and with these other sufferers. Some were even brutally “captured” after tribes of “spotted negroes” had been seen together and it was even believed there may have been an entire “race” of people with vitiligo:
The Spotted Boy was discovered in Caffraria, South Africa, by a party of American Travellers, in the year 1868. There’s nothing know of the parentage of this boy. The Kaffrs, a tribe of negroes, who had possession of him, stated that they had discovered a spotted tribe of negroes in the interior of Africa, and that in pursuit of them they killed several and captured this boy. By some he is supposed to be a freak of nature, born of negro parents; while others think there may be a spotted race of people in the vast unexplored regions of Africa. He is now about twelve years old, large of his age, well proportioned, intelligent, and is mottled all over the body white, black and brown, the white spots being of as delicate a purity as the skin of the fairest Caucasian; this variegation extending to the hair, and even to the iris of the eye. The left eyelash is white, ant the other black. Apart from the ordinary curiosity attaching to such a phenomenon, it is scientifically interesting as an example of nature’s caprice in dermatologied development.
Hundreds of years later and it seems they still are…
Michael Jackson vitiligo timeline
Tom Chiarella, Esquire Magazine, 2009
I never liked the glove, although when I saw his monstrous hand, I got it. And I admired what he’d done to cover it up. It was never clear to me if that hurt or not, but I imagine it did. Think about the beauty of that. Putting sequins on your open wounds. Think about the entire world staring at the one thing that makes you feel most ugly.
