Lupus vulgaris

Lupus vulgaris are painful cutaneous tuberculosis skin lesions with nodular appearance, most often on the face around nose and ears. The lesions may ultimately develop into disfiguring skin ulcers if left untreated.

The term "lupus" to describe an ulcerative skin disease dates to the late thirteenth century, though it was not until the mid-nineteenth that two specific skin diseases were classified as Lupus erythematosus and Lupus vulgaris. The term "lupus", from the Latin for wolf, may derive from the rapacity and virulence of the disease; a 1590 work described it as "a malignant ulcer quickly consuming the neather parts; ... very hungry like unto a woolfe".