bruises..tell me more
Hmm.... tell me more....do the "bruises" hurt? Do you have any small "splinter hemorrhages" in the nailbeds of your fingertips or toes? Do you have any bleeding from your gums with brushing, do you have a fever / chills, any visual or neurologic changes (weakness, slurred speach, etc.), any recent use of other drugs (antibiotics, anticoagulants, etc)? Any similar skin reactions or lesions in the past? where exactly are they located?
Many different cause of "bruising". A true bruise is, as we all know, usually just a traumatic injury and you get a bit of a hematoma (blood collection) under the skin and you see a bruise. Low platelets or other coagulation factors in your blood can also cause bruising via spontaneous local hemorrhages. Low coag factors can be either congenital things (hemophilia, von Willebrands Disease, etc. - which you would have had a prior history of), or aquired causes like drugs (aspirin, ibuprofen, some antibiotics, radiation or chemotherapy, etc.), infections that suppress the bone marrow's ability to produce platelets, or liver disease that inhibits coagulation factor production, etc. can all cause bleeding / bruising. Bleeding with low platelets often shows up as bleeding gums, cuts that take forever to clot, excessive menstrual flow (women), etc. Things like little hemorrhages in your fingernail beds can be associated with endocarditis (infection / inflammation of the hear lining and valves).....can give low platelets and little emboli (small clots) flung off into fingers, toes, etc, but even brain (thus a stroke with neurologic changes, etc), etc. Endocarditis would be a very rare cause of "bruising" or embolic "bruises", that would not be painful, but is a possibility with injection drug use with infection accessing the blood.
Also, various skin reactions / rashes/ lesions can look like a "bruise", but not be more than a cutaneous reaction to something. They may be itchy or peel, etc instead of hurt. Other very rare things to think about for purple "bruises" in young injection drug users is Kaposi's sarcoma....a blotchy, purplish, non-painful skin condition associated with HIV infection.
The above is only a very partial list, but would need a lot more info about your "bruises". Definitely see your doc and get your platelets checked, check other areas for such lesions, stop any new drugs / things you may be in contact with unless you really need them, etc.
Chances are it is nothing more than a bruise, but there can be many things to consider, so get it checked out.
Keep us up to date.
BPU