ABSTRACT
Some assume it is in humanity's nature to be disturbed by difference and to stigmatize signs of difference upon the skin. 1 Leprosy, in particular, has long been regarded as the ultimate manifestation of stigma growing from a disfigured external appearance. 2 Belief in the universal stigmatization of leprosy has become so entrenched in the modern Western world that it has become a myth in itself. 3 Yet in reality there is no universal idea of what constitutes a 'normal' human, and as such no universal response to the disfiguring symptoms that mark a 'leper'. 4
