24 year-old Winston K. earned this intricate body art during a spring storm when he went outside to save his pumpkins. Ironically he is an electrician, but it wasn’t his job that put him in contact with this electrical jolt; it was a bolt from Mother Nature in his own backyard.
Winston says he saw something bright and heard something loud hit his neighbor’s yard, but he didn’t feel a thing.
“I just came back inside like nothing was wrong. Um… my arm was sore. But I didn’t … I don’t think I saw any marks until 30, 45 minutes later” he tells.
Winston says it didn’t hurt when it happened, but a few hours later his arm started to feel achy and sore. The next day big blisters started forming on his skin. Even a month after the lightning strike he still felt “random pains” running down his left arm and the skin felt tender.
Known as a “Lichtenberg figure,” for the German physicist who first described seeing a similar pattern while experimenting with static electricity, these reddish fern-leaf patterns are a skin reaction to a lightning strike.
The feathering marks are believed to form by the transmission of static electricity along the superficial blood vessels that nourish the skin. What you tend to see is a superficial burn to the top part of the skin.
Source: IG@Medicalpedia
