Strange sticky substance on skin

I never suspected I'd be posting about something like this, but there you go...
Anyway, I'd really appreciate serious opinions about what I am about to describe. (It's not serious - I hope not! - so no solemnity is required; it's just that empty jokes tend to waste everyone's time. )

It's a longish story - longer than you might expect.
But please, IF you are reading it, do take it seriously: I am not enjoying this any more than you are, and I certainly don't practice prank-posting (except on April 1st).

Today, a cousin of mine showed me a few smallish (but varying in size) spots of an unknown sticky greenish-brown substance that suddenly appeared here and there on the skin of her left arm and left leg (maybe four or five spots in total). They appeared very suddenly, around noon, in her apartment (a perfectly urbanised area, even though there is a lake nearby), at a time when she was doing - and I quote - "nothing in particular".
(Later in the day she did make a long journey, but I think that's beside the point.)

I will describe the substance in detail later, but first I would like to point out the really alarming (I hope not) element of this story: another relative who doesn't live in the same household as my cousin also noticed the appearance of spots of the exact same description on her left arm and leg, also about noon. (And the other people who do live in the same household as this second individual had no such symptoms.)

None of them (or I, for that matter) have ever seen anything like it before. They have both very fair and healthy (and clean! ) skin, with no known diseases or other anomalous conditions.

They were together yesterday afternoon into the early evening - they meet often, maybe three times a week - and did nothing out of the ordinary: they sat in the garden, then they took a walk in the park, didn't eat or drink anything unusual (for them), none noticed any bugs biting them or anything falling on them from the trees... Besides, the spots appeared TODAY, the day after, and quite suddenly, when they were NOT together.

The spots are - or rather, were (they have been removed by now) - totally painless as they did not seem to come from "inside" the skin but were obviously (certainly looked like) an external "addition": like glue or resin sticking to the skin.

It's difficult to describe it accurately because I've never seen anything quite like it, but my (and her) first impression was hardened tree (or plant) sap - probably because of the colour. But it could also be compared to chewing gum or glue. It was VERY sticky; even a hard brush didn't remove it totally, only the residue (after the washing) looked similar to dirt.

My cousin was very annoyed, not only because she doesn't like to go around dirty-looking, but because she had no idea where did it come from. As I said, the substance appeared suddenly, around noon.
She didn't it actually SEE it appear; it's just that one moment her skin was perfectly clean, and the next she had this sticky, gluey dark spots on her left arm and thigh - ONLY on her left side. And she only noticed the spot on the thigh - it was the biggest of them all - when she went to change her clothes. (She thought it was a bruise - it was yellowish around the borders, and greenish-blackish inside - but she could not remember bumping into anything, and the spot wasn't even tender. It was then, touching it, that she noticed that it wasn't a bruise at all, because the substance started coming off in sticky little particles as she rubbed it.)

I didn't see the other relative's spots, but my cousin did, and she said they were exactly the same as hers. I did see my cousin's spots.

As you can understand (I hope), I wouldn't be troubling anyone with this, if it weren't for the almost - excuse the expression - eerie coincidence of their appearance on two people who were not at the same place at the time.
And it goes without saying that I googled like crazy before posting here - and my cousin before me (but she's just crazy anyway ).

All I want to know is this: have any of you experienced or seen - or even heard - of a substance of such a description suddenly and without a visible reason appearing on somebody's leg and arm? (And the simultaneity of both cases definitely should be kept in mind.)

Or do you at least have any idea of what the substance could BE?










[edit on 26-5-2008 by Vanitas]

this happened to me too, in the last two weeks. it was more like a black sticky film. my guess is that the body is expelling toxins?