Ila (pr. E-la) is a

birthmark A birthmark is a congenital, benign irregularity on the skin which is present at birth or appears shortly after birth—usually in the first month. Birthmarks can occur anywhere on the skin. They are caused by overgrowth of blood vessels, melanocy ...

found amongst

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

n infants, up until the last seventy years. It was described by Augustin Kraemer as being circular in shape, about 10 cm across, and lies just above the buttocks of infants up to the age of six months. It has a faint dark blue color. The birthmark is a Mongolian spot and is apparently homozygous recessive. Nearly all Samoan infants were born with this mark, but any ancestry outside of Samoa, however slight, results in the infant not showing the mark. The birthmark is now very rare in Samoa, and can only be found occasionally on remote islands to the west.

References

Skin {{Samoa-stub