For most people, a few red-purple spots on the feet after a night of drinking would be easy to shrug off. For a small number of patients described in medical journals, those spots appear to be the visible sign of an immune reaction that inflames tiny blood vessels in the skin, and alcohol seems to be what sets it off.
Dermatologists at the University of Toledo and Penn State described two such adults in a 2025 case series in Case Reports in Dermatology. Both had biopsy-confirmed immunoglobulin A (IgA) vasculitis with recurring spots on their lower limbs. Both flared soon after drinking, got little help from the anti-inflammatory drug colchicine, and improved once they avoided alcohol.
