This woman used her skin condition to make really cool body art

pulse

March 21, 2017 1:02 AM

We’re all about using the powers of social media to share the unique things that make us beautiful in the name of #bodypositivity.

Ashley Soto.

"Now what others would perceive as an imperfection, I have made into something more beautiful."

We’re all about using the powers of social media to share the unique things that make us beautiful in the name of #bodypositivity. And Instagram star Ashley Soto is doing just that by creating some insane body art out of an autoimmune condition that affects her skin.

Ashley has vitiligo, a skin condition that causes splotchy pigmentation over 75 percent of her body. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, about 1 percent of the world's population has the condition.

While most vitiligo starts to appear most often in adults in their early twenties, Ashley was diagnosed with the condition (which is considered an auto-immune disorder) when she was 12. Now at 21, she took the thing she was bullied for growing up and turned it into some seriously sick body art in an incredible body-positive transformation.

“I never realized how beautiful my vitiligo was until I traced it with a black marker,” she told the Daily Mail.

“It really helps to bring out the different colors of my skin. I was always trying to find a way to look at my skin in a positive light, [and] I couldn't do that before starting this. Now what others would perceive as an imperfection, I have made into something more beautiful and made it more accepted than before.”

Ashley says she’s been able to connect with so many people dealing with vitiligo through her social media accounts, and is even thinking of starting her own YouTube channel to inspire others to share their stories.

That’s a body positive movement we can totally get behind.

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