In Reply to: pictures posted by on May 11, 2007 at 15:57:46:

I've seen this before more than once. Here's a good start into
what I, a total layman, would suspect the problem is;

"Diving has a longer pedigree than compressed air tunnelling, but it is in reports on the latter that I found vivid early descriptions of skin bends. Paul Bert in La Pression Barometrique, (1877) cites a report of 1859 “the frequent itching of the skin, fleas, as the workmen call it”..."

"Good reviews are found in The Physician’s Guide to Diving Medicine, Plenum Press 1984, Bennett & Elliott, 4th Ed 1993, and the various editions of Edmonds and Pennyfather, Diving and Subaquatic Medicine. (The author's) own contributions to the medical literature, a chapter in Occupational Health Practice, 3rd Edition 1989, and some advice encapsulated in UK Diving and Tunnelling legislation (1997 and 1996) were more dogmatic than most. In the OHP article, skin rashes, bruising mottling, itching and swelling of the limbs or trunk were placed in an intermediate group between the old Type I and Type II with a footnote that all intermediate and type II symptoms should be treated as serious decompression illness. This approach can be justified if all those with certain or possible symptoms of DCI should be recompressed."

• http://www.londondivingchamber.co.uk/index.php?id=dci&page=12