Changing Faces II

Dabbs wasn’t quite a teenager when his vitiligo surfaced. It showed up as a little patch around his eyes when he was in sixth grade, Dabbs said. It spread to his lips, mouth, hands and then across his body.

For years, he wore makeup to avoid stares and have a consistent skin tone. He had his lips tattooed so they wouldn’t be pink. “It made me look so much better,” Dabbs said. He’d get up at 5:30 a.m. to put the makeup on before work. He avoided eating in public and sometimes refused hugging...