Piebald is a word often used to describe animals with large black and white spots, however in the golden age of sideshow – and even long before that – it was used to describe human beings with this unusual skin condition.
Contrary to what one may assume, piebalding is not related to albinism and is instead caused by dominant mutations of an altogether different set of genes in a condition known as Vitiligo These mutations can occur in persons of any color. However, persons of African heritage with vitilligo make up the bulk of sideshow performers – often called leopard or zebra people – and are the subject of most of the medical history – most of that early history is filled with racist statements and ignorance.
The first image depicting ‘piebalding’ in a human being occurred in the pages of Histoire naturelle by Buffon. A lithograph features a young girl – around the age of five – standing amid an exhibit of curiosities with a two-tone body. Buffon never met the child first hand but owned
an original painting the lithograph was based upon. The painting was done by an unknown Columbian artist in 1740 and bore the following inscription:
Despite this rather detailed pedigree, many naturalist of the day insisted that the child was the result of a white and a negresse and that to preserve the honor of the Society of Jesus it was written that both parents were slaves. Later, that diagnosis was changed, by Buffon, to include the union of a slave and an albino.
Despite the fact that many other children were born with piebald – John Richardson Primrose Bobey (1774, Jamaica), Magdeleine (1783, St. Lucia) George Gratton (1808, St. Vincent) and Lisbey (1905, Honduras) – Buffons odd hypothesis stood as fact for nearly two hundred years.
This is a beautiful and informative website. I am much interested in unusual people for writing purposes, and I love to see how perfectly normal and lovely they can be despite exterior appearances. As with all of us, there were evil-minded “human marvels,” too, but many were wonderful. I am grateful for your work.
this is not cool they r not zebra people they have a diseas
um… did you read this at all? he isn’t saying that they are actual zebra people…. he even explains vertiligo… well, considering your typing skills, i’m guessing you can’t read.
ha peaches
Although I’ll have to disagree with you…though anonymous 4:47 sentence structure and spelling is that of a 5 year….if they are able to write this jibberish they certainly can read….the ability read well is in question.
I have Piebaldism. Not to the extreme as the man in the photo. I am a 44 year old white female. Piebaldism is not a disease nor is it a form of Vitiligo. It never changes patterns, never gets worse, and never gets better. It is just something that we learn to live with. It is genetically transfered from family member to family member. If you are lucky it skips you if not then you have to live with it. It doesn’t hurt. it’s not contagious, and no, it is not leprosy.
my mother is a white 44 year old with vitilligo, she has also a large sacar on the left side of her face because she had one of the worst cases of a starwberry birthmark on her fave and in her mouth, i love my mom, and lol, i liked to play a game to try to find patterns in it when i was young. love your site, keep ut the good work!
Thank you for the comment Raven. Send your remarkable mother my best wishes.
Fantastic! I saw a little boy in a book years ago and the cool part was that the black part of him was as black as they come. He wasn’t splotchy though, He really looked like it was meant to be that way. This guy looks terriffic though.
I have piebaldism, too. It’s tough being a curiosity but I could have been born different in so many other ways. If you see someone different please dont stare and question, just google it later. LOL.
Dude! The guy in the picture looks so awesome! Kinda makes me wish I had been born with this!
I TOO HAVE PIEBALDISM AS WELL AS MY DAUGHTER , GRANDSON AND GRANDAUGHTER. I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM AS IT APPEARS TO HAVE SKIPPED AT LEAST 2 GENERATIONS BEFORE ME. WHAT I WOULD NOT GIVE TO BE ABLE TO GIVE MY DECENDANTS A TRUE EXPLAINATION. BTW: WE ARE COMPLETELY NORMAL OTHER THAN THE LACK OF PIGMENTATION IN BOTH SKIN AND HAIR. THANK YOU.
The the patterns in the skin is beautiful. It makes the person look like a work of art.
my skin has spots like this too, and while the first part of my life was difficult, i have learned to love my spots and i can’t imagine life without them. my wife loves them and was the one who really helped me accept them. to me, it’s a constant reminder of nature’s curious ways and the amazing diversity and horrific beauty there is to be found every where we look.
I have this, it’s passed down all the males in my family, i’m white but have pitch black hair with a streak of white in it, i think it’s cool.
I came across your site while researching Vitiligo. Piebaldism is, in fact, a stable form of virtiligo. There are treatments available, but they are costly and uncomfortable. It is rather unfortunate what many were put through because of the ignorance of society as a whole. Thank you, Mr. Pednaud. You have shown some in this world the type of people I deal with every day: good people with good hearts who just happen to look different.
So.. I am confused. I have heard of genetic piebaldism (mainly in a zoological sense), and also of vitiligo. The comments left here lead me to believe that there is only vitiligo in various forms of stability, but is it then possible for someone to be born a “zebra person”, as it were? Or is there always some form of progressive pigment loss from infancy?
Either way, I think patches of pigment are a lot more interesting than just plain colouration, and I think it would be cool if the human race had more pattern diversity. :]
(but then I suppose we’d manage to make up all kinds of discriminations based on patterns rather than shade, ho hum)
sexy man! srsly
Thank you for this fine and informative site!
Recently there was a teenager on the morning news show that had a condition that made her dark skin gradually loose all pigmentation in white patches until she had completely white skin. She had dark patches all over for many years and was persecuted constantly about it.
Would this be a similar condition?
Looking for others who have piebaldism that does not change and are caucasian. I am part albino, I have a white streak and white spots that do not change, my mother, aunt, cousin, uncle and grandfather have this. Looking for others who have the same. email me @ quiver3@hotmail.com, I want to compare geneology.
I am also piebald, am 33, have got the white forelock with white scalp at front of head, and huge white marks on knees and lower legs, have always been this way, the marks have never grown bigger or smaller. Most of my siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews,my grandfather (deceased),great grandmother (deceased) are also like this with white marks on other parts of the body as well. It has been in our family for five consecutive generations, and came down from my mother’s side of the family, my mum also has it. I love my white marks and hair and wouldn’t have it any other way, everyone thinks my family is special, and treated us that way since I can remember, maybe it’s our politeness and charm, who knows! I do feel very privileged though to be a proper piebald, with white hair and white marks, Oh I’m from Trinidad in the Caribbean.
I am a 60 year old, white female. I have piebaldness. I have a white streak in the front of my hair, but no white on my body. My three children have white patches on their bodies and my two boys have a white streak in the front of their hair, as well. My daughter doesn’t have the white streak in her hair. Most of my family has piebaldness. My mother, aunt, sister, brother and most of my nieces and nephews have the white on their bodies and in their hair. I was told that it came from my grandmother, on my mother’s side. I am from Eastern Kentucky. I am from a small town, Drift, in Floyd County. People are always stopping me, asking about my hair. They think that I put the white in my hair and are surprised to know that it is natural. Everybody thinks that it looks really cool.
Please join our Piebaldism group on facebook. So far we have 42 members.
I just discovered this condition and I think it is beautiful. It would be great if we all had some variation.
I agree with Lydia, I think this condition’s visual is absolutely stunning. the variation of tones and different speckles is beautiful. We should learn to appreciate more people with piebaldism, and never lable them as freaks. :)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108658871043
We have a group on Facebook…..please feel free to join.
Just to repeat what many have said; the guy in the picture looks marvellous!
i have vitiligo it covers most of my body except my face, i am 15 years old and got it when i was in third grade. my grandfather from my mothers side has it but used a creme to make his few spots go away, my fathers mother has it on her neck and down her side (not very noticable)it skipped my parents and cousins and brother and hit me. i try not to tan to keep my skin light so it is hard to see. its really hard always having to wear long sleves and try to cover up! to all ppl who have this and are willing to help themselves their is something called the light treatment that could help or a creme called protopic that requires sunlight. try it it might help! good luck!
Michael Jackson suffered from this, it was the main reason he changed his skin colour.
Wow how refreshing reading these comments. My case is slighlty more unique I was born with have multicolored skin and a white forelock.Im thirty one african american female and as I get older the white spaces especially dominant on my legs is being covered by new black skin so its looking more and more normal. most of my life i wanted this to happen but how everyone on here is glorifying this it makes me proud Im the only one in my family with this unique trait and havent heard of any ancestors with this. felt kind of lonely Im an attractive girl but I have this trait to thank for keeping me humble. thanks everybody im almost in tears.
I agree with Lola. It looks quite attractive.
Just to reitterate, Piebaldism is NOT the same thing as vitiligo and Michael Jackson did NOT have Piebaldism.
I have a 2yr old daughter with patches of white skin. We’re not sure yet exactly what it is because she’s got very pale skin anyway, we’be only just noticed the patches on her arms and legs this summer. I was starting to freak out at the thought of school and kids picking on her until I came accros this site. I know there will be some that pick on her, but this gives me hope that it won’t be all of them. Thank you for this beautiful site, I might show it to the school when I take her to be enrolled in a couple of years.
if she doesn’t have a white forelock of hair in the middle and front of her forehead it isn’t piebaldism. runs in my family.
Former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi also had Piebaldism.
If you google images of her on Internet you can clearly see the white strike in her hair!
Piebaldism is NOT a disease and only looks a bit odd.
[…] Llega a este mundo Chiara, una esclavita muy peculiar adquirida en Alejandría luego de que masacraran a su familia en Circasia (región del Sur de Rusia, en el Mar Negro y las montañas del Caucaso). Sabemos muy poco de su origen, pero se induce que su aldea fue exterminada y ella sobrevive porque tiene la rara condición del vitiligo. La autora hace enfásis en cómo su piel es a la vez su condena y su salvación. El término que usan para describirla en inglés es PIEBALD, término que se usa para animales. Significa pinto, moteado, pío/picazo para caballos o mulas, manchado, rodado, tordo. Es un término de caballería que significa tener el pelo mezclado de blanco y negro, zorzal o estornino.(recopilado emedicine. medscape.com) Es una condición que no está relacionada al albinismo, sino que son una serie de mutaciones dominantes en otros genes diferentes a los que causan el albinismo. Las personas que tienen esta condición tambien tenían el pelo parcialmente blanco. Puede ocurrir en cualquier raza pero la mayoría de casos ocurre en personas de descendencia africana. Historicamente eran exhibidos como anormalidades en espectáculos sensacionalistas como los de P T Barnum. Se les conocía como la gente leopardo o cebra. (recopilado https://www.thehumanmarvels.com/zebra-people-piebald/) […]
I am 24 yrs. Old I have piebald albanism it runs in my family… as far as I know it started with my great grandmother on my dad’s side… she had it my grandmother had it my dad my brother my nephew me and my son! We are African American and we all have white spots and the white streak of hair in the middle yes sometimes we get long stares but I love how i look. I didn’t know it had that many other people like us I would really like to meet you guys or even just talk! My email address is raynise22@gmail.com
I also am Piebald, and it not a disease and has nothing whatsoever to do with Vitilligo, other than they are both pigmentation disorders, but caused by entirely different set of circumstances. Check out my site at whitelock.info for a more detailed discussion of the the Piebald condition in humans. (Some portions of the site are being reworked, but there are still portions up and running: ie. cover page, newsletter, misconceptions, stories, photos, library links, etc. I am available at ready2sail@yahoo.com if you have specific questions.