Anyone know what causes purple blotches?

Twin, if there are blood thinners being taken, aspirin, Coumadin, etc, they do not cause the bruising but the slightest bump will cause a ghastly bruise. My stepdad on Coumadin once rubbed his eye just wrong and a bit too hard developed a black eye. It was really bad and quite colorful. You would have thought someone had punched him hard!

My Boss, who is an older senior, gets those purple/reddish bruises all the time. The slightest bump onto something hard will make them show up, and half the time he has no idea how he got that bruise. The skin is thinning so one tends to bruise easier.

Many years ago during my annual physical I pointed out a few places that had what kind of looked like bruises. He shrugged and said that a lot of women get them. They called it the devil's pinch.

They have better understanding of this phenomenon now. Try looking up Senile Purpura and see if that seems to apply.

This is probably senile purpura, it is common in the very old (you can google it).