Little black balls on the body

Today I saw someone on the bus, a dark-complected young man covered almost completely in black bumps. His face and arms were the only parts of his body uncovered, and he was wearing gloves (it was 30 C today). What medical condition causes that? Is it contagious? Is it painful?

How big were the bumps? By “dark complected”, do you mean that he was olive-skinned, black, Indian, etc.?

Google “skin tags” that may be what you saw. Most insurance companies consider it a cosmetic issue,and will only pay to remove them in extreme cases. It sounds like he may have qualified, and the company paid to have them removed from his face and arms.

Here is one possibility:

http://boredomtherapy.com/doctors-blind-spot/

He looked black to me (I couldn’t make out his facial features because he was wearing a baseball cap and I only noticed him as he exited the bus) with dark skin, yes. They were the size of mini pom poms.

The differences between that lady and the man I’m describing is that his bumps were very much raised and they were far more numerous, in addition to being present on his face.

And as far as skin tags, I highly doubt that is the case. He was wearing gloves in unbearably hot and humid weather. There has to be a reason for why that is.

Leprosy?

Neurofibromatosis. Google images of it.

Angiokeratoma?

Keloids?

That’s horrific!

A friend of mine suffers from neurofibromatosis (though his case isn’t as extreme as some of the pictures that you can find). Even so, it’s definitely disfiguring.